If duplicate clients or defendants are added to your records, the software can find and merge those people to improve record keeping.
- Click the blue "Find Duplicates" button and the system will search for and generate a list of duplicate people. You are able to review these people and then combine them.
Please note: only NAME records will merge. Name, address, phone number, demographics, next of Kin. Case records will not merge.
The list will display up to fifty people with matching name records. If there are more than fifty people in your database with matching names, there will be an option to view the next page of fifty.
Merging the name records will allow all cases the person is involved in to be displayed on the Client's Other Cases tab.
2. Click on a name within the list to view all the instances of that person and determine if they are the same person.
In the examples above there is a person, Jonathon Jones, that has been entered as three different people with a total of four different cases. Each instance of this person has some information that can further identify them as separate people or confirm that they are the same person.
Information that can be used here to identify this person (or people) can include:
- Address
- Phone Number
- Previous Case Number (and Case Date / Time)
- Phone Number
When choosing to merge the people records you can choose which record will be the main name record that all the other records will merge into. In the example above the 1st name record displayed is outlined in blue. The blue outline indicates it is the main name record that the other records will merge into.
What this means is that the Name, Address, and Phone Number of the record outlined in blue will be the information that replaces the records in the other instances of that person's name. The exception to this rule is if there is no data in that record, then the data that does exist will remain intact.
For example, in the sample above, if the name record labelled 'A' is the record that I want all the other records to merge into, then all the records will merge combining the cases for each instance of that person into the Client's Other Cases tab. However, because there is no data in the Address and Phone Number fields, the address and phone number from record labelled 'C' will remain intact for all the records.
To choose a different record to be the main name record click on the pink star icon in the bottom left corner of the record that you want to become the main name record.
This will remove the blue outline from the original main name record and place it on the newly selected main name record.
Next, while reviewing the name records for this name, you can choose to NOT merge one or more name records. If the name record you are currently viewing is a common name such as John Smith you might determine that one or more of the name records are truly a different person (or people) and should not be merged into one name record.
In this case you can click on the orange toggle button to exclude a particular record from being merged with the others.
Once you have finished reviewing the name records and are satisfied with the actions to be taken, you can merge that (those) individual name record in the list by clicking on the clue icon in the bottom right corner of the name record.
If you determine that all the name records listed for that name are, in fact, each a different person and none of the name records should be merged, you can click on the orange toggle button in the bottom right corner of the name record to not merge any of the name records.
This will turn the entire name record box bright pink and will not allow those name records to be merged.
This functionality is best used when reviewing each of the names in the list, determining which records will be merge or not merged and then merging the name records in the whole list by clicking on the blue Merge All button at the bottom left of the list.
Please Note: Clicking on the Merge All button at the bottom of the list will merge the fifty name records (or whatever number of name records) that are displayed on the screen. If there are more than fifty, you will need to complete the steps above again until all the name records have been reviewed.
A final point to mention: If you have chosen to not merge name records in the list because they are truly different people and shouldn't be merged, those people are NOT removed from the duplicate client list.
The next time you client Find Duplicates those people will be included in the list again for review.
The best way to avoid having to review their name over and over again is to add a middle initial to one or both of the person's' name records. It is recommended to add the middle initial to the person's first name field for instance 'Jonathon A'.
This will change the first name of that person and the system will recognize them as a different (not duplicate) person.
