CALSPro - California Association of Legal Support Professionals

Membership Renewal Due Now!

Posted January 26, 2012 in Membership

If you have not already submitted your membership renewal form, it became delinquent on 1/15/2012. Your renewal must be received no later than Wednesday, February 1, 2012 to avoid the possibility of your membership being forfeited.

There are two special offers for upgrading your 2012 membership:

1)         Individual members will receive a $100 discount when adding, or   upgrading to a Company Membership.

2)         Renewing Company Members will receive a $100 discount for each new Individual Membership added to their Company membership.  There are no limits as to how many new members you can add to your Company membership.

Enjoy the added benefits of a company membership and/or invest in your key personnel and your business by having them join and participate with the association.

Please consider upgrading your membership this year.

Special Incentive from CFC/Top Priority

You will be pleased to see new very affordable CALSPro pouch rates starting February 1, 2012.  As an added incentive to join the pouch program, all new* pouch participants in 2012 will receive an additional discount of 15% applied to their first months bill.

*  A Member who had discontinued pouch service prior to 2012 and re-starts pouch service in 2012 will also be eligible to receive the first month 15% discount, provided there was no balance due from their previous participation.  More Information About Our Pouch Program Here…

CALSPro Pouch Lowers Prices

Posted January 24, 2012 in Membership

The CALSPro Board of Directors is pleased to announce new, much lower pricing and added benefits for the CALSPro Pouch Service with our vendor, Top Priority/CFC effective February 1, 2012.  Please note that service charge prices have been substantially reduced, the daily weight allowance has been increased, and the overweight charge has been slashed by over 50%.

The new rates and weight allowances are as follows:

• Twice a day (AM-PM) Service will be decreased to only $375.00/month
• Once a day (Swap) will be only: $195.00/month
• There will be no charge for the first 10 pounds (up from 7 lbs. previously).
• The overweight fee is being reduced to only 64 cents per pound (down from $1.32)
• In addition, the fuel surcharge has been zeroed for the current market price of regular unleaded up to $3.85/gallon, and thereafter .0065 for every ten cent incremental increase.

This represents about a 35% savings over your current base price.  A typical company with one office, daily swap and no overweight will save a minimum of $1,000 per year. That is twice the cost of a CALSPro Company Membership.

With this kind of savings, once a day participants can now consider shifting to twice a day, company members can consider adding staff as individual members and also enhancing their listing and everyone can convert the savings into additional advertising for increased business in 2012.

Optional Tracking Feature

CALSPro members will also be able to print an individual bar-coded tracking slip online (as desired) and attach it to their envelope or zipper pouch instead of writing an E – Code.  At the 1^st sorting center, and each service hub along the line haul, the bar code will be scanned so that you can track the internal movement of your envelope online.  This is at no additional cost to the member.

Additional services at very competitive rates provide extra savings throughout the year

Let the power of your CALSPro membership provide additional benefits and savings throughout the year on all of your shipping and delivery needs.   Top Priority/CFC offers overnight courier service from CALSPro pouch participants to any California business address the next day (some zip codes are excluded). That’s right, not to just other CALSPro members, but to most business addresses throughout California, eliminating your need to use higher priced overnight services.

You will be able to overnight envelopes and boxes at rates that you will really love.

Envelopes ship for a $5.49 flat rate; which is much less costly than FedEx or USPS overnight.  Top Priority/CFC will issue pre-paid, bar-coded stickers for you to take advantage of this special pricing.

Boxes up to 20 lbs. are shipped for only $7.99 ($0.49 for each additional lb. over 20).

For boxes, Top Priority/CFC will issue pre-printed tracking slips (like Fed-ex or UPS) and bill your account monthly. When you have items ready to ship simply call the pouch company for a special pickup or just place the items beside your outgoing bag.  The item(s) will be delivered the next day.  This program is planned to start mid February allowing for setting up each participant with on-line access.  More details will follow in the weeks to come.

eFiling in Orange County

Posted January 23, 2012 in Membership, Technology

e-filing. Just hearing the word is enough to make some court runners and attorney services get nervous; especially those attorney services earning a significant portion of their revenue from physical court filing. That being said, the demand for e-filing with the superior courts is on the rise.

When e-filing began in June of 2010, a single Electronic Filing Service Provider (EFSP) provided an interface for attorneys and individuals to electronically file documents directly with the court in Orange. Attorney services had to build their own e-filing interface to e-file with the court, or refer their clients to the Court’s website for them to access the existing EFSP and obtain e-filing capability. As of January first of this year the types of cases that are required to be e-filed in Orange County has grown, and as such, so has the concerns amongst attorney services that cover Orange County that they would lose out on this portion of this business.

The concern can now be eased as there are additional EFSP’s now available for electronic filing in Orange who allows third parties (attorney services) to e-file on behalf of their clients.

Now, if an attorney service has a document that needs to be e-filed with Orange County, they can set up an account and e-file through an EFSP by manually entering the information into their system. For some attorney services, this is another option, rather than building their own  e-filing system or turning their clients away.

We have heard that other companies have built or are currently in the development stages of efiling systems where the law firm clients of an attorney service might have the option of doing the data entry and submitting it through their attorney service’s site or a possibly a site with their attorney service’s name and logo will be on it.

The CALSPro Technology Committee will be keeping a careful watch on the progression of efiling, and will continue to keep our membership informed of any new developments.