The Outcomes Program
- Jonathan Hess
At Docketly, we believe part of what sets us apart from the rest is our continual drive toward delivering superior court appearances — from finding our customers the best price possible via SuperBundling to leveraging AI to optimize our workflow, all of our teams are committed to this goal.
Part of delivering a superior court appearance includes showcasing the quality of attorneys we’re entrusting with your cases AND providing the data to back that up! This is referred to as the Outcomes Program.
This handbook page will provide customers with:
An understanding of the program’s background and objectives.
An understanding of the grading criteria.
An introduction to the customer's visual components
A top-down view of how each Docketly team contributes to the program
Background and Objective
The Outcomes Program grew out of a need and desire from both our customers and attorneys.
Customers have long requested visibility into the “return on appearance” they receive by using Docketly as quantifiable data showing what they paying for.
From the Attorney’s perspective, they have expressed interest in learning more about how they were performing compared to other attorneys and whether the customers are happy with the results they’ve achieved for them in court.
To deliver on the customers' requests and share import metrics back to attorneys, we built the Outcomes Program!
The overall objectives of the Outcomes Program are:
To share important quality metrics with both customers and attorneys.
To empower both groups with actionable information.
To enable informed decision-making through the use of Docketly.
Grading Criteria
Every applicable hearing is assigned a score once the hearing report is published. As of 2025, the grading criteria only applied to Collections hearings, with plans to introduce criteria for other practice areas in the future.
A score is influenced by three key “phases” of a hearing and assigned (or “fired”) by the information included in the attorney’s Hearing Report. The three phases are:
The pre-hearing & preparation
The in-court appearance
The fidelity of the return information in the Hearing Report
The Preparation phase includes the steps an attorney and customer take ahead of the hearing, such as:
If there were missing attachments, did the attorney reach out to request those ahead of time OR
Whether the attorney reviewed the customer's specific instructions in the hearing details or not.
The Appearance phase is pretty explanatory. In short, this phase evaluates whether the attorney appeared AND if they appeared in the Appearance Method indicated on the hearing details. Things like:
If an attorney fails to appear or deletes their appearance right before the hearing assigns a negative outcome.
The Reporting phase is an assessment of the fidelity of which the attorney completed the hearing report — i.e.: did they answer the bare minimum of questions, did they upload any files back to the customer, etc?
How a Score is Calculated
If an attorney follows all three of the above steps, including answering all of the report questions with helpful and relevant information, they receive a Positive outcome.
If an attorney follows most of the three steps, with the possibility of skipping questions or not following instructions exactly how the customer requested, they receive a Neutral outcome.
If an attorney fails to follow 1 or more of the three steps, such as getting a case dismissed with prejudice when that’s not what the customer wanted, they receive a Negative outcome.
Outcomes Dashboards
To view your firm’s Outcomes Dashboard, click on the Outcomes button on the left-hand menu within your Docketly account.
Filters
At the top of the dashboard, customers and attorneys can filter the dashboard’s data by:
Date Range
State
County
In-House
and Category 2 (Pre-Judgment, Judgment, and Post-Judgment)
Overall Comparison
Next, customers will see a side-by-side comparison of their outcomes vs. other firms based on the filters they’ve selected.
Positive Outcomes
The dashboard then moves to showcase a breakdown of the Positive outcomes, highlighting their top three results and trends over the last 6 months
Neutral Outcomes
Unlike the Positive Outcomes breakdown, the Neutral Outcomes section categorizes scores as:
Within Firm’s Control
Outside of the Firm’s Control
Since a Neutral score is heavily nuanced and doesn’t often have a clear indicator, we found it beneficial to separate the results by whether something was inside one's control. Additionally, a Neutral score doesn’t mean the attorney returned a bad outcome — rather, this is typically an indication that:
The attorney omitted or skipped questions in the hearing report
The customer didn’t set the attorney up for success
The outcome was outside of everyone’s control
Negative Outcomes
Returning to the previous form, the Negative Outcomes section breaks down a customer’s sources of negative outcomes and shares their top three areas of opportunity on the right hand.
Ongoing Work at Docketly
Returning to the beginning of this article, the Outcomes Program is a continually evolving element of Docketly and involves multiple teams.
When onboarding new attorneys, the Recruiting Team introduces the program during orientation.
When one-on-one or follow-up conversations take place, the Performance Team reviews an attorney’s data and provides coaching and feedback.
When fielding calls or support tickets, the Support Team is the first line of communication with attorneys, helps pinpoint their specific Outcomes and needs, and relays that inquiry to the correct team.
Finally, to coordinate all of the above and report back to the customers, the Success Team oversees all phases of the program, from refining grading criteria to facilitating workshops and 1:1 conversations with customers.
To discuss the program in greater detail or learn how you can contribute, please reach out to the Success Team!