Setup / Intake - ServePort®

Setup / Intake - ServePort®

ServePort® Overview

ServePort – which stands for service of process portal – is a core component of every product in Safari. It is a customizable portal for the receipt and intake of served documents, and a delivery portal for subpoena response documents. In other words, it is a two-way portal for interacting with issuing parties and requesters.
This help page is dedicated to the setup and updates to intake portals. For more information about ServePort delivery portals, see ServePort - Open a Delivery Portal.

Intake Portals

ServePort intake portals can be configured for several different purposes:
  1. Service of process: ServePort is typically used as a centralized site for electronically receiving service of process for all legal documents, but it can also be configured to accept limited document types only, such as just levies, garnishments, and/or subpoenas.
  2. "Internal" portals: ServePort portals can be set up for internal purposes, like receiving documents from bank branches.
  3. Customer information requests: ServePort can be used to handle customer information requests, including those related to personal data under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), and to facilitate compliance with Section 609(e) of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) by enabling businesses to manage and respond to identity theft information requests.
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SERVEPORT AGENCY PORTAL - Safari also operates a portal specifically for government agencies to serve levies in PDF format. Safari handles all of the setup of this portal for agencies. See Levies - ServePort Agency Portal to learn more.

Intake Portal Fields vs. Form Fields

The setup and editing of a ServePort portal requires the preparation of both "portal fields" and "form fields." Here is a summary of how they work together.
Portal Fields. Each ServePort portal has various portal-level fields, such as the portal title and short title, portal instructions, business hours, and a list of forms available to the Issuing Party / Requester.
Form Fields. When an Issuing Party / Requester selects a form to serve a document, they are presented with fields such as subject information, document name, and others. Which fields appear, and whether they are optional or required, is part of the form's configuration. Each form can also include up to three legal consents that the Issuing Party / Requester must accept before submitting.  Finally, each form contains a specific Acknowledgment of Receipt template, which is the legal confirmation that you provide to the Issuing Party / Requester that their document has been received (see more information below).
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COMPANY OWNER PERMISSIONS - Form fields are generally not editable by Company Owners. However, Company Owners can edit the Form Name and the consent language.

Business Hours Policy for Electronically Served Documents

Your business hours policy determines the received date for documents served electronically outside your business hours. The policy is applied consistently regardless of how the document arrives.
Documents received via ServePort: The Issuing Party / Requester sees your business hours policy at the time of submission and must acknowledge the deemed received date before they can complete service. That acknowledgment is captured on the Acknowledgment of Receipt.
Documents received via SFTP: Safari has built direct connections with some government agencies that serve levies. Those documents are typically received via an SFTP connection. The business hours policy is applied in the same way as it is for ServePort based on the file's timestamp. No serving party acknowledgment is generated, so your company is responsible for managing that agreement with the serving party outside of the platform.
In both cases, the Date Received field in the Safari matter will reflect the policy-based date automatically. No manual edits are needed.

Access Controls for ServePort Intake Portals

Each intake portal can be configured to control which email domains are permitted to submit requests. There are two approaches:

  1. All email domains allowed -- Any party can submit through the portal, regardless of their email domain. This approach is typically used for external-facing portals where Issuing Parties / Requesters need open access.
  2. Approved domains only -- Only submitters with email addresses from pre-approved domains are permitted to submit. This approach is best for internal portals used exclusively by branches, offices, or the mail room, where access should be limited to your organization's own email domains.

Setting Up a New Intake Portal & Forms

New intake portals are created by Safari, not by your company directly. When setting up a new portal, your Customer Success Manager will provide a text document to complete, which captures the portal's displayed content such as instructions and titles. The sections below walk through each field in that document in detail. Once your portal is live, you can edit many of those text fields directly -- see the next section for details.

Portal Fields

Portal Address

Safari creates a unique portal address for each portal. Part of the portal address includes text that identifies your company's portal. We recommend that you use your email domain. If you're setting up an internal portal, use your email domain followed by "-internal" as shown below:
https://app.serveport.com/serve/[your company domain]-internal

Portal Title

The top of the portal page shows your company's logo and the title of the portal. See the image below for an example of a portal titled "Law Enforcement Portal."

Portal Short Title

The portal short title is displayed in the left sidebar of the portal.  It is separate from the portal title, which appears at the top of the portal page.

ServePort SOP Business Hours Policy Fields

These fields control whether your business hours policy is enabled for this portal. The policy is typically disabled for law enforcement portals, 609(e) portals, and internal portals. If you enable the policy, your company's default business hours (configured on the Company Setup page and shown in read mode below) will apply, unless you choose to customize the hours for this specific portal.

Portal Info

This text appears on the right side of the portal home page (i.e., before the Issuing Party has obtained an access PIN):
And it displays again after you've received a PIN, and appears at the top of the intake form (see orange circle):
This text supports rich text formatting, allowing for bold, underlines, and hyperlinks.

Instructions

This text displays after the Issuing Party / Requester has received a PIN and appears at the top of the page that the Issuing/Requesting Party will complete (see purple circle). Note: this text applies to all intake forms (i.e., there is not separate text for each intake form).
This text supports rich text formatting, allowing for bold, underlines, and hyperlinks.

Authorized Domains - Internal Portals Only

For internal portals, access can be restricted to users with email addresses from your authorized domains. Safari does this by only sending the access PIN to email addresses matching the approved domains. If no domains are specified, the portal defaults to unrestricted, meaning any email domain can receive a PIN. Once your portal is live, Owners can add or remove authorized domains, see more details below in the 'Editing an Existing Intake Portal' section.

Intake Forms / Acknowledgment of Receipt

The Intake forms presented to the Issuing / Requesting Party, and the associated Subtype that is assigned to the matter created, can only be modified by Safari.  To add or delete forms or make changes to the associated Subtype, contact your Customer Success Manager.

Each intake form made available to the Issuing/Requesting Party supplies an Acknowledgment of Receipt. While this is a "template," it currently can only be edited by Safari (for changes contact your Customer Success Manager).  Below is a list of the variables are available for the template. Note: you can use a variable only if it is required for the applicable intake form.
  1. [[Entity Served Name]] (usable only if required in form)
  2. [[Date-Time Created]]
  3. [[Submitted By]]
  4. [[Submitted By Email]]
  5. [[Served Document File Name]]
  6. [[Document Title]] (usable only if required in form)
  7. [[Safari ID]]
This text supports rich text formatting, allowing for bold, underlines, and hyperlinks.

Form Fields

For each form that is made available to the Issuing / Requesting Party, you must provide the following information in a specialized spreadsheet that will be made available to you by your Customer Success Manager:
  1. Form Name (i.e., the name shown in the picklist to the Issuing / Requesting Party)
  2. Matter Subtype, which will be used for the matter creation
  3. All of the fields that are required or optional
  4. Legal consents ("wrap" terms) associated with each form (up to 3 can be provided)
In addition, in the text document in which you provided the Portal text information, you must also provide the text for the Acknowledgment of Receipt for each form.

Editing an Existing Intake Portal & Forms

After Safari has created your portal, Company Owners can edit all of the Portal fields except for the Portal URL. For more information about each of these fields, see the above information in the section for creating a new Intake Portal.

With respect to each form, you are allowed to edit the Form Name (i.e., the name shown in the picklist to the Issuing / Requesting Party) and the legal consents ("wrap" terms), but all other information about a form can only be edited by Safari.  

How to Edit Portal Fields 

To edit the text fields on a ServePort intake portal, Company Owners can navigate to System Setup > ServePort Intake Portals. From there, locate the portal you want to update and edit fields as needed. Once finished, click SAVE to finalize your changes. 

Is there a question we haven't answered? Please send it to us at support@safarilaw.com.

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