Evidence sharing rules

The evidence broker must share evidence from a source case to a target case in accordance with the sharing configurations and evidence maintenance patterns that an administrator defines. Also, to maintain data privacy and to avoid sharing data with third parties unnecessarily, the broker must adhere to the evidence business rules.

The evidence broker can either share records automatically to the target case without caseworker review, or add the records to a caseworker's incoming list for manual review and processing. When the broker shares and resolves records without caseworker intervention, the system automatically activates the changed evidence on the target case so that reassessment occurs. Caseworkers can view the changed evidence in the active evidence list page.

When it shares evidence records between cases, the evidence broker complies with the rules that are outlined in the following sections. Some additional rules apply also to the sharing of logically equivalent evidence. For more information, see the Identical and logically equivalent evidence section.

Evidence is shared only through a defined sharing configuration

Evidence is shared between two case types only when a sharing configuration exists that defines the evidence types to be shared between the cases. An administrator creates a sharing configuration by using the sharing configuration wizard.

Evidence is shared only between open cases

The evidence broker shares evidence records only between open cases, including the insertion, modification, and removal of evidence records. Cases that have a status of either closed or canceled are considered to be closed. All other cases, including those that have a status of pending closure, are considered to be open.

For example, two open integrated cases A and B share income evidence records through a sharing configuration. A caseworker inserts an income record onto case A that the broker shares to case B. After case B is closed, the caseworker removes the income record from case A. However, because case B is now closed, the broker does not share the income record removal to case B, and therefore the income record is not removed from case B.

Identical evidence is shared to all directly and indirectly linked cases

In an identical evidence sharing configuration, evidence records are shared from a source case to all target cases that are linked directly and indirectly by configuration to the source case. For example, the broker shares the phone number evidence type from person A's evidence to integrated case B through a sharing configuration. Integrated case B also shares the phone number evidence type with income support integrated case C through another sharing configuration. If a caseworker inserts a phone number onto person A's evidence, the evidence broker shares the phone number evidence record from person A's evidence to integrated case B and to income support integrated case C.

Logically equivalent evidence sharing configurations do not support indirect evidence sharing

The broker does not support the sharing of logically equivalent evidence through indirect sharing configurations. An administrator must explicitly specify a logically equivalent sharing configuration between two cases for evidence to be shared between them. For example, the broker shares evidence between the following cases through logically equivalent sharing configurations:

The broker shares person A's email address evidence to integrated case B contact details evidence.
The broker shares integrated case B contact details evidence to income support integrated case C address evidence.

If an email address is activated for person A, the broker shares the email address from person A to integrated case B. The broker also attempts to share the evidence to integrated case C. However, the sharing would fail because a direct logically equivalent sharing configuration does not exist between person A's evidence and integrated case C evidence. For the broker to share the email address evidence to integrated case C, an administrator must specify a logically equivalent sharing configuration that shares email address evidence from person A to contact details evidence on integrated case C.

All active records are shared

All active evidence records are shared, from the first active record on the business start date to later successions. If a succession occurs to an evidence record, any succession records whose status is active are shared to target cases. The broker also shares the deletion of active records.

Evidence records that have a superseded status because they have been corrected are not shared to target cases. Also, in-edit status records that are associated with active evidence records are not shared.

Shared evidence type must exist on the target case

An administrator can configure the evidence types that are associated with each type of case. When an administrator creates a sharing configuration and selects evidence types to be shared between two case types, the administrator can select only evidence types that exist on both cases.

Evidence is shared automatically only for trusted sources

When an administrator creates a sharing configuration between a source case and a target case, the administrator can specify whether the source case is a trusted source. Only evidence records from trusted sources are shared seamlessly to target cases without intervention from a caseworker. A caseworker must manually review and process evidence that is received from a source that is not specified as trusted.

Evidence type rules apply to sharing evidence between participants

A case can have one or more participants, where at least one of the participants is a member of the case. An administrator can configure evidence types on a case to apply either to members and other participants, or only to one or more specific members. To ensure that data privacy is maintained and that data is not unnecessarily shared with third-party agencies, the evidence broker must adhere to the rules that are configured for evidence types.

Evidence record applies to all types of case participant: An administrator can configure an evidence type that specifies that only the main participant must be either a primary client or a case member; other participants can be a case member, a registered person, or an unregistered person. For an evidence record of such an evidence type to be shared successfully, it is not necessary that each person that the evidence record applies to is a member of the target case. Therefore, if the evidence record contains multiple participants, only the main participant on the source evidence must exist as an active member on the target case for the evidence record to be shared successfully. An example of such an evidence type is student evidence, which contains a member that represents the student and a participant that represents the school. When student evidence is shared, the school is created on the target case.
Evidence type applies only to case members: An administrator can configure an evidence type that specifies that all participants must be members on the case. For an evidence record of such an evidence type to be shared successfully, each person that the evidence record applies to must be either a primary client or a case member on both the source and the target cases. Therefore, if the evidence record contains multiple participants who must all be members, all participants must exist as active members on the target case for the evidence record to be shared successfully. If one member who is on the source case does not exist on the target case, the evidence record is not shared to the target case. An example of such evidence is household relationship. In this case, the relationship between two case members, such as a husband and a wife, is captured in a household relationship record. If either the husband or the wife is, for example, members on another integrated case, then this evidence is not shared to that case as both members do not exist on the target case.
Evidence type applies only to other participants: An administrator can configure an evidence type that specifies that no members exist, only one or more other participants. Such an evidence type is shared to all members’ cases and the evidence type is displayed in the incoming evidence list. Caseworkers are responsible for reviewing the evidence in the context of the specific case and for determining whether to add the evidence to the case or to reject it. An example of such an evidence type is absent parent evidence that contains a participant that represents the absent parent, where the participant is not a member on the source case.
Evidence type contains no participants: An administrator can configure an evidence type that specifies no participants at all. In this instance, the evidence is recorded against the primary member on the case. If a new case is created for the primary member, the evidence is shared to the target case. Such evidence types are rare and typically represent child evidence in a parent-child relationship.

Case members active period must overlap on source and target cases

The broker shares an evidence record only if a person exists as either a primary client or a case member on the target case for a period that at least partially overlaps with the shared evidence record. If the person is not an active member of the target case for at least some of the period that the shared evidence record applies to, then the evidence record is not shared.

Evidence broker adheres to evidence maintenance patterns

An evidence maintenance pattern enforces a set of evidence maintenance restrictions and behavior on evidence sharing that determines how an evidence type is instantiated, corrected, and succeeded. Therefore, the rules that are applied to a shared evidence record's type through an evidence pattern must be maintained when a target case accepts and activates shared evidence:

If a shared evidence record's type can have only a single instance of the evidence, another instance of the same evidence type is not activated.
If a shared evidence record's type can have only a single instance of the evidence during a particular period, another instance of the same evidence type is not activated unless it is for a different period.

For example, consider that an evidence broker sharing configuration exists to share the foster care and foster care payment evidence types between income support integrated cases that are trusted sources. The foster care evidence type is assigned an evidence pattern of single timeline, and the foster care payment evidence type is assigned an evidence pattern of multiple with succession. A person has an existing integrated case A with a foster care evidence record, and two foster care payment evidence records for different payment types. The same person has a second integrated case B that contains the same foster care and foster care payment evidence records. When a caseworker adds a new foster care payment for a different payment type to integrated case A, the evidence broker shares the new foster care payment to integrated case B. The evidence broker has adhered to the evidence pattern for foster care payments, that allows multiple instances of foster care payments on a case.

Removal of in-edit evidence records

The evidence broker shares the removal of evidence records, and the insertion and modification of evidence records. If a record that matches a shared removed evidence record is found on the target case, the matched record is removed from the target case. Any in-edit records that are associated with the removed record on the target case are also removed.

Differences in sharing configuration require manual intervention

An administrator can configure particular evidence types to be shared seamlessly between cases without manual intervention by a caseworker. However, to avoid discrepancies, the evidence broker places some evidence records that are normally processed seamlessly into a caseworker's incoming list for manual review and processing. For more information, see the Evidence records and data matching topic.