For California workers’ compensation firms

Every page in its tab. What is due, clipped to the page.

Brown Folder files the mail and faxes your firm receives into their cases, behind the tabs your rules name, notes what is due, and tells the person your firm named — by the rules your attorneys approve.

Files into MerusCase. Built on a public standard for the case file. Or write to hello@brownfolder.ai

Illustration — not a real case.

The AAI Standard

“A case file is a brown folder with fifteen tabs.”

— The AAI Standard
A public standard.
How a California workers’ compensation file is kept — tabs, names, clips — published for anyone to read and check.
standards.aai.dev
The procedure, published.
The case book walks each kind of document through the file, step by step.
procedure.aai.dev
Written for California.
Built only for California workers’ compensation practice, and nothing else.

The work

What your rules cover is filed. What is due is clipped. Whoever needs to know is told.

Each document is filed behind the tab your rules name.

Letters, reports, faxes and notices go into the case they belong to, under the tab your firm would have chosen, named the same way every time.

What is due is clipped to what started it.

When a document starts a clock, the date comes with it — attached to the page that set it running, not kept in someone’s head.

The person your firm named is told.

The attorney or staff member your firm named for that kind of document gets the task, with the case and the filed page attached.

The file looks the way your firm would keep it.

Fifteen tabs, one naming grammar, a chronology that runs in order. Anyone in the firm can pick up any case and find their place.

Illustrations — not real cases.

Control

Your attorneys write the rules. Brown Folder keeps to them.

Nothing is filed by a rule your firm hasn’t approved. What falls outside the rules waits for your staff. And every filing can be traced and corrected.

Approved before anything is filed.

Your attorneys review and sign off, in advance, on where documents are filed, what is clipped to them, and who is told.

Outside the rules, a person decides.

A document your rules don’t cover, or one that is unclear, waits for someone at your firm.

Every filing is labelled.

In your case system, where your firm can see what each document is and where it went.

Anything can be corrected.

A filing that should have gone elsewhere is put right, one document at a time, with the correction on the record.

The folder

The parts of the folder. Each one, kept for you.

Fifteen tabs. One grammar.

The same folder for every case, so the file is where you expect it — today, and the day someone else picks it up.

Tab 7, top.

The latest med-legal report is the first thing behind its tab.

Deadlines, dated.

The date, and the page that set it.

Mail and fax.

Paper and fax alike, filed the same way.

California only.

Built for one practice area and one state’s rules.

Named one way.

Every document titled in the standard’s grammar, so it’s named the same way every time.

Your system stays the record.

The case lives where it always has.

Side by side

The same file, two ways.

Common tasks, without and with Brown Folder
TaskWithoutWith Brown Folder
Find the latest QME reportSearch the scanned fileTab 7, top
Know what a UR decision startsRead it, then count the daysClipped to it, with the date
Know who was toldCheck with the teamShown on the filing, in your case system
A fax arrives late FridayPicked up MondayFiled when it arrives, if your rules cover it
Pick up a colleague’s caseLearn their way of filingSame fifteen tabs, every case
Fix a misfiled pageLocate and refile by handCorrected, with the record to show it
Someone asks who decidedDepends on who remembersThe rule, and the attorney who approved it

Confidentiality

Confidential by design. Your clients’ files are kept for your firm alone.

Only your firm sees your work.

Each firm’s cases, rules and documents are kept in a workspace of their own, open only to the people your firm signs in.

We hold as little as we can.

Your case system stays the record. Brown Folder is designed to keep as little as it can, and we’ll tell you in writing what it keeps.

Sign-in required.

Your firm’s workspace has no public pages. Every person signs in.

Your attorneys stay in charge.

Your attorneys approve the rules and can review and correct any filing. Whether that meets your firm’s professional obligations is your attorneys’ call.

Who handles your documents.

Ask us, and we’ll tell you in writing which services process your documents, under what terms, and where.

Questions about data handling? Write to hello@brownfolder.ai and we’ll answer in writing.

Made by the people who wrote the standard.

Brown Folder is made by AAI, which writes and publishes the AAI Standard and the case book. Brown Folder is built only for California workers’ compensation.

Questions

What attorneys ask first.

Who sees our clients’ information?

Your firm, and the people your firm signs in. Each firm’s cases, rules and documents are kept in a workspace of their own. Your case system remains the record, and Brown Folder is designed to keep as little as it can. Ask us, and we’ll tell you in writing which services handle your documents, under what terms, and where.

Does it work with MerusCase?

Yes. Documents are filed into your existing MerusCase cases, under the tabs and names of the AAI Standard, and tasks go to the people your firm names. Your staff keep working where they work today.

Who decides where a document goes and who is told?

Your attorneys. Your firm approves, in advance, where each kind of document is filed, what is clipped to it, and who is told.

What if it gets something wrong?

When a document is unclear, or falls outside your approved rules, it waits for your staff. Every filing is labelled in your case system, so your firm can see what it is and where it went, and any filing can be corrected, one document at a time. Your attorneys stay in charge of the file.

Why only California?

Because a workers’ compensation file is only as good as its knowledge of the forum. Brown Folder is written for California workers’ compensation practice and its forms, and nothing else.

How does it relate to the AAI Standard?

The AAI Standard is the public description of how a case file is kept: fifteen tabs, one naming grammar, a clip and a note on every document. Brown Folder keeps your files that way. You can read the standard, and the case book that walks each document through it, before you ever talk to us.

How do we start?

Write to hello@brownfolder.ai and we’ll set up a walkthrough with your attorneys.

Every case, in its folder.

Write to us, and we’ll walk your attorneys through how their files would be kept.

Or write to hello@brownfolder.ai