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The Training Course for Case Managers and Arbitrators

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Lesson 4 - Creating a new Arbitration case

Pickup of Dispute filings from Ticketing System

Follow this link to a generic description of OTRS if you are new to the Ticketing System.

Open https://issue.cacert.org.
Login with your account.
Check the disputes queue.
Open one case in the zoom view.
Lock the OTRS case, so the others know you are working on it.
Some checks before creating the case
- Check if the case really should be an arbitration case or has to be discarded/rejected back to support or dismissed directly. (see Lesson59).
- Check the Pending Arbitration Cases page if a case exists that matches the new case so that the new case should be merged into it.
- If the case is a delete account or CCA-violation case (with the potential result of closure of the account) other open arbitration cases have to be checked, since they would be prevent the closure of the account. If there is an open case, both cases should (later) reference each other.
- Each other case should be checked for a notice of a running "close account" case on support level. In this case an order to support to stop the procedure should be considered.
- Check the Pending Arbitration Cases page for an open "close account" (or CCA-violation case with the potential result of closure of the account) and proceed as above.

Selection of correct case number

The correct case number for a case follows the pattern aYYYYMMDD.#,

where
- YYYYMMDD represents the date (UTC time zone), the case was introduced to arbitration (for example by a move to the disputes queue in the OTRS or mail to arbitration or split of a case...)
and
- # represents the order of cases of that day (first in, gets 1, next 2, ...)

The arbitration case number is independent from the day and order they get attended by arbitration and from the support case number.

Note: the most important thing about the case number is that it is unique! There are some tools which expect the correct syntax aYYYYMMDD.#, and it helps to judge some things on first view, but there is no strict requirement that the date is exactly correct. BernhardFröhlich

Creating the case

Enter arbitration case number to Free Field named "Case number" in OTRS
- The free fields can found in the menue above
Create public part of case:
- Create a new case at the Wiki page Pending Arbitration Cases. (Use the input box on this page to create a new wiki page based form the template for arbitration cases).
- Fill out the new Wiki page (see also Lesson05 - Editing the initial Wiki page for new arbitrations). Please use only shortened names (First name and first letter of last name) here!
Create private part of case:
- Create a private part of the case containing the full names, email addresses, and link to cases in the OTRS.
- Copy all mails and notes regarding the case from the OTRS, <cacert DASH disputes AT lists DOT cacert DOT org> and <cacert DASH arbitration AT lists DOT cacert DOT org> to the discovery of the private part (for example as Addtl. Note from within OTRS).
Polish public part:
- Remove creation section for priv part from public part
- If dispute is neither critical regarding privacy or security issues, ensure that an anonymized version of the dispute is contained in the public part. Else add a meaningful description of dispute (if possible / sensible).
Add to Pending Arbitrations List:
- Add the case to the list of Pending Arbitration Cases.
- If the case has the potential to be a precedents case, mark it as such.
Send notification mail to (C) and (R), arbitration-list and arbitration-achives from your personal CAcert account. Try this link to a mailtemplate, and remember to the activate digital signature. ¹

To:      <claimants email>, <respondents email>, cacert-arbitration@lists.cacert.org
CC:      arbitration-archives@cacert.org
Subject: New CAcert Arbitration case a20######.# - "short complaint text"   (as in Wiki overview)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear <claimant>, <respondent>,

a dispute filing has been received, the Arbitration case number is: a20######.#

You can find the current state of this arbitration case at:
https://wiki.cacert.org/Arbitrations/a20######.#

The search for a Case Manager and Arbitrator is still open.

Given the current backlog of arbitration cases, this might take some time. If you consider your case as urgent please notify me so I can try to prioritize your case.

As the next step a Case Manager or Arbitrator will contact you with a initial mailing as soon they get appointed to this case.

If the dispute was anonymised completely or in bigger parts on the public page
- check if all claimants and respondents are familiar with the dispute
- if parties may not be familiar with the dispute, include it as complete as possible without breaching privacy/security. Any party should be able to know what the case is about as far as possible (however the privacy of third parties should be regarded as well in this step). Sensible assumptions about prior knowledge about the sensible parts should be made, here.
- If in doubt do not send those parts but note this for the Arbitrator to decide in the case file (private or public).
Update case file about notification mail
- add line about notification to history log of public part
- add the mail text to the discovery section of priv part (may be removed by A/CM later)

Close Ticket in OTRS

Select the Close in OTRS zoom view of case
Add link to arbitration case as comment -> https://wiki.cacert.org/Arbitrations/<arbitration-casenumber>
Set "Type of Issue" to "Arbitration Support"
Next state: closed successful (is automatically selected).
Push Submit to close the ticket.

Urgent and Special Cases

If you consider the case as urgent
- write an additional mail to <cacert DASH arbitration AT lists DOT cacert DOT org> stating this.
- either take the case yourself or actively search for an A and CM for that case.
Look again at the checks to do before one creates a case. Does one of them match the case? If yes, check if everything needed in this regard is done and documented in the case.

An old version of this lesson (with a more complex procedure) can be found here.

Questions

From where have Case Managers to pickup new disputes ?

Earlier we used OTRS to send the notification mail. But since OTRS always uses support AT cacert DOT org as sender address this is considered impractical. In addition there are issues with the currently used mailserver. (1)

Review

EvaStöwe, MartinGummi: reviewed once by authors, left some changes (needs another review)

BernhardFröhlich: reviewed, minor clarifications and additions