CMS Portal - Procedure

The Children's Court of Victoria is implementing an online Case Management System (CMS) in response to recommendations from the Royal Commission into Family Violence to improve information sharing across key government organisations. The CMS is accompanied by an online portal known as the CMS Portal and is used for exchanging documents and information between Child Protection and the Children's Court of Victoria. It replaces all current methods by which the Court receives information. For more information about the CMS Portal, see CMS Portal – Advice, CMS Portal and for guidance on using the CMS Portal see the CMS Help Centre for more information.  See CMS Portal Homepage to log in to the CMS Portal

Case practitioner tasks

• Complete the mandatory training titled ‘CMS Portal for Court Documents’ available in OurPeople Learning (OPL).
• Request CMS Portal case access to the relevant child under the Court Summary tab in CRIS. This will be sent to the Organisation Administrator who will grant or decline Case Access (access will be declined if you are not in an ‘in scope’ job title eg if you are not classified as a CPP 3 or above)
• The CMS Portal does not change practice advice regarding the decision to issue an application before the Children's Court. For more information see Applications by emergency care, Applications to extend orders and Breach of an order by emergency care or application for a new IAO by emergency care.  
• Applications by Emergency Care will be generated in CRIS or offline, and scanned copies must be uploaded to the CMS Portal following service to parties. For information on creating applications in the CMS Portal see the CMS Help Centre.
• For emergency care matters, ensure all documentation is finalised and ready for upload before having the matter listed in the CMS Portal.
• Applications by Notice must be generated in the CMS Portal as a PDF, printed, and served on the parties with copies of the applications and then saved in CRIS.
• Issuing and listing a matter is now a single step. Once the application is in the CMS Portal (uploaded or generated), a date is selected and accepted by the Court, and the matter will be listed.
• The CMS Portal does not replace the need to serve documents, such as applications and court reports on the parties. See Service of documents for more information. 
• Affidavits of service, Court reports and any other documentation relevant to court proceedings must be uploaded to the CMS Portal and CRIS. For information on uploading documents to the CMS Portal see the CMS Help Centre.
• The Child Protection Litigation Office (CPLO) does not receive notifications from the CMS Portal when applications are initiated and documents uploaded. Therefore, timely communication between Child Protection and CPLO remains imperative.
• Bail justices do not have access to the CMS Portal, and Bail Justice hearings will continue as per the current policy. However, after the bail justice hearing, if an order is granted, Child Protection must upload the order and schedule a hearing for the next business day through the CMS Portal and record these details and copies of orders in CRIS. See Applications by Emergency Care before a Bail Justice for more information. 
• Child Protection is required to provide redacted CRIS notes as part of some applications. CPPs must be aware that within the CMS Portal, there are two options for uploading CRIS notes:
  • CRIS Notes (Redacted) – If 'CRIS Notes (Redacted)' is selected, the notes will be automatically available in the CMS Portal for all portal users with case access without having to be released by the Magistrate. This is a new function that has been built into the court process as a result of the CMS Portal. In most cases, CPPs should be uploading their redacted case notes to this section.
  • CRIS Notes – If 'CRIS Notes' is selected and submitted, these will remain hidden from other portal users but will be submitted to the Magistrate. CPPs should consult with CPLO when uploading unredacted CRIS notes. 
• The CMS Portal prompts a compulsory field titled 'My Reference' for every application or document uploaded to or generated in the portal. For consistency, the following standard naming convention should be adopted for 'My Reference' and documents uploaded to the CMS Portal:
  • Date of application/document (YYYYMMDD), Surname and first name and application or document type (e.g., 20230801-Doe John-Protection Application). 
  • If the document relates to a sibling group, use the surname/s and the word siblings (e.g., 20230801-Doe siblings-Addendum Report).
• When selecting a hearing date, whether by notice or emergency care, and a suitable date is unavailable, contact the relevant court registry to discuss available dates that may not be listed in the CMS Portal. If this occurs outside of business hours, contact with the appropriate court registry will need to be made the next business day. 
• The CMS Portal will generate confirmation notifications via email to the CPP filing the applications or documents. Email notifications are to be uploaded as a case note on CRIS as follows: CMS Portal notification – application type, e.g., 'CMS Portal notification - Protection Application by Emergency Care'.
• It is the responsibility of CPLO to manage the drafting of minutes of proposed orders in the CMS Portal. Child Protection is NOT to complete this process.
• The CMS Portal is not intended to replace the need for Child Protection to give instructions to CPLO and actively participate in Court proceedings. 
• Record court outcome information in CRIS Court Screens.
• A copy of the court order must be downloaded from the CMS Portal and uploaded to CRIS.
• If a parent's email address has been added to their contact details within the CMS Portal, they will receive a copy of the court order via email following the court hearing. If the parent does not have an email address, they can obtain a copy from the Court following the hearing.
• It is the responsibility of Child Protection to ensure parent and child/rens details in the CMS Portal are accurate and updated.  Other CMS Portal users do not have this capacity in the portal.

Supervisor tasks

• Complete the mandatory training ‘CMS Portal for Court Documents’ available in OPL and support supervisees to do so.
• Escalate any CMS Portal onboarding or offboarding issues to the team manager.

Team manager tasks

• Complete the mandatory training ‘CMS Portal for Court Documents’ available in OPL and support supervisees to do so.
• Ensure staffing changes are updated in the appropriate systems as soon as possible. This will ensure that when staff no longer have in-scope job roles or have resigned from the department, their user access to the CMS Portal is removed by the Organisation Administration Team. 

CMS Portal Homepage

CMS Portal Help Centre 

CMS Portal for Court Documents – Child Protection Training (OurPeople Learning).

CMS Portal – Advice

Applications by emergency care

Applications to extend orders

Breach of an order by emergency care or application for a new IAO by emergency care

Case recording

Service of documents

Applications by emergency care before a Bail Justice