We're pleased to announce the latest release of Access Legal Case Management, Version 2.17.5

This update includes various enhancements and bug fixes detailed below.

Release 2.17.5 includes a significant enhancement to email reliability: ALCM now automatically queues and retries emails that cannot be sent immediately, for example due to a lost internet connection, and introduces a new Outbox view so users can monitor and manage unsent emails at a glance. This release also fixes a crash that occurred when adding a contact through the workflow, resolves an issue where accepting an Opportunity could incorrectly mark the resulting matter as completed, corrects a template font and paper-size default when using Online Word, fixes spell-check not working in larger text fields within workflow screens, and resolves a PDF viewer state issue where closing an edited PDF and then navigating to Calendar or Mail Settings caused the PDF to reopen unexpectedly.

Additionally, this release includes fixes for duplicate emails being added to matters for specific users, and improvements to client data fields (NI number and telephone number mapping) in workflow screens.

Please note: three further issues are included in this release as potential fixes. Despite thorough investigation, we have been unable to reproduce these issues in our own testing. We believe the changes made address the reported behaviour, and we are asking affected customers to confirm whether these are now resolved. These are: the Save button becoming unresponsive after a document has been open for many hours, random WebSocket errors experienced by some users, and shared calendars not appearing in a user's calendar section in ALCM. For the shared calendar issue specifically, a workaround has been provided as the behaviour is related to the user's Microsoft 365 configuration rather than an application defect.

Status: Potential fix - unable to reproduce internally, customer confirmation requested

Summary: When a document was generated from the workflow and left open for several hours, closing the document and then pressing Save caused the Save button to become completely unresponsive. Clicking View Document in the same window produced a 'Something went wrong' error. The only recovery was to refresh the page, which closed all open tabs and returned the user to the welcome screen, with any unsaved work lost.

Root Cause: This issue could not be reproduced in our test environment despite investigation, so a definitive root cause has not been confirmed.

Fix: This is being treated as a potential fix. We have made a targeted improvement to the session-handling logic for documents opened from the workflow, based on the pattern reported. Because we were unable to reproduce the fault ourselves, we are asking affected customers to confirm whether the Save button now remains responsive after a document has been open for an extended period.

Status: Potential fix - unable to reproduce internally, customer confirmation requested

Summary: Some users intermittently received a WebSocket 1006 error when attempting to save items to ALCM, most commonly after creating a document from the workflow and editing it for more than approximately two minutes before saving. The issue affected multiple users across different offices and home working environments, and persisted even after browser restarts and laptop reboots.

Root Cause: This issue could not be reproduced in our test environment despite investigation, so a definitive root cause has not been confirmed.

Fix: This is being treated as a potential fix. We have made targeted improvements to the WebSocket connection-handling logic based on the reported pattern. We are asking affected customers to confirm whether the error is no longer occurring so we can verify this is fully resolved.

Status: Workaround provided - issue is related to the user's Microsoft 365 configuration/usage rather than an application defect

Summary: For some users, shared calendars that are visible to other colleagues in ALCM did not appear in their own calendar section, even though the underlying Microsoft 365 Exchange permissions were set identically for all users. The affected user could see the calendars in Outlook but not in ALCM.

Root Cause: Investigation confirmed that the calendar permissions and sharing configuration are managed centrally via Microsoft 365 Exchange and are identical across all users. The behaviour is specific to how ALCM reads the calendar data for individual user accounts and is influenced by the user's Microsoft 365 account configuration rather than an application defect.

Workaround: Affected users can continue to view shared calendars directly in Outlook. We recommend reviewing the affected user's Microsoft 365 account configuration with your IT administrator. If the issue persists after confirming the configuration is correct, please contact Access Support.

Summary: For a small number of users, emails sent via Gmail using the matter reference in the subject line were being duplicated on the matter's file history. One copy was charged and one was not, with both appearing as separate entries even though only one email had been sent.

Fix: The email agent's duplicate-detection logic has been improved so that the same email message is only processed once, preventing duplicate entries from appearing on the matter's file history.

Summary: When opening the client data entry screen (Screen 4) during a workflow, the National Insurance number field was present but not pre-populated with the value held for the client, even though the NI number was correctly stored and visible in OneOffice.

Fix: The NI number field is now correctly populated from the client record when the client data entry screen is opened during a workflow, matching the behaviour in OneOffice.

Summary: In the workflow data entry screen (Screen 4), the Telephone (Home) field was incorrectly displaying the Work telephone number, and the standard Telephone number was not being pulled through at all, despite both being correctly stored in the client record.

Fix: The telephone field mappings in the workflow data entry screen have been corrected so that the Telephone (Home) and Telephone (Work) fields each display the correct value from the client record.

Summary: When adding a new contact through the workflow data entry screen, saving the contact, selecting an existing match from the postcode-match prompt, and then closing the screen caused ALCM to crash with a continuous spinning wheel, making the application unusable until the page was refreshed.

Fix: The contact selection and screen-close sequence in the workflow data entry screen has been corrected. ALCM no longer crashes when a contact is added and the screen is subsequently closed.

Summary: When accepting an Opportunity and opening the resulting matter, the matter was sometimes found to have the 'Completed' checkbox already ticked, meaning it would not appear in standard matter searches and users had to tick 'Include completed matters' to find it.

Fix: The Opportunity acceptance process has been corrected so that newly created matters are always opened in an active, non-completed state.

Summary: When creating a new template in ALCM and opening it in Online Word, the document defaulted to Times New Roman font and Letter paper size instead of the expected Arial 11pt and A4. This caused printing problems, formatting inconsistencies, and required users to manually correct every new template.

Fix: New templates created in ALCM now default to A4 paper size and Arial 11pt font when opened in Online Word, removing the need for manual correction.

Summary: When typing in a large text field within a workflow screen, the browser's spell-check did not highlight misspelled words with a red underline, even though spell-check worked correctly in smaller fields on the same screen. This risked incorrect spellings passing through into documents undetected.

Fix: Spell-check is now enabled on large text fields in workflow screens, consistent with smaller fields, so misspelled words are highlighted as expected.

Summary: After editing a PDF in the case history and closing it, navigating to Calendar or Mail Settings caused the last-opened PDF to reopen unexpectedly, interrupting the user's intended navigation.

Fix: The PDF viewer's state is now correctly cleared when the document is closed, so navigating to Calendar or Mail Settings no longer causes the PDF to reopen.

ALCM now keeps your emails safe when sending is interrupted. If an email cannot be sent straight away - for example, because your internet connection drops - it is automatically queued and sent for you once you're back online, so nothing you write is ever lost.

What's new:

· Automatic retry: Emails affected by a lost connection are queued and sent automatically when connectivity returns, even if you close or reload the app in the meantime.

· New Outbox view: A new Outbox panel shows every email still waiting to be sent, with its recipients, status and the reason it hasn't been sent. A badge on the header keeps a count of unsent emails visible at all times.

· Stay in control: Open an unsent email to keep editing it, or resend it yourself with a single click. A clear 'You are offline' indicator lets you know when sending is paused.

· No duplicates, no lost drafts: ALCM checks each email before resending, so a message already sent — for example from Outlook — is never sent twice, and every unsent email remains safely in your Drafts folder.

· Shared mailboxes supported: Emails sent on behalf of a delegated or shared mailbox are handled correctly.