Sharing Umpire Briefs
Send briefs to umpires via email and track when they view your submission.
Why this matters
The old way of getting an umpire brief to an umpire is to attach a stack of PDFs to an email and hit send. You have no idea if the umpire opened it. You have no idea if the attachments came through. You have no way to receive documents back from the umpire other than another reply-all email chain that gets buried in your inbox. And the brief itself, with all of its supporting documentation, is now sitting on whatever email server the umpire happens to use.
The secure share link fixes most of that. The umpire gets a unique link, views the brief, and downloads what they need from a clean web page. They upload their own documents back to you through the same link, so everything flows into the file in AwardLettr. And you can see when they opened it, so you know whether the submission has been reviewed. Some umpires, especially attorney-umpires, still prefer plain email attachments, so that stays a first-class option too. See "Choosing How to Deliver It" below.
This is the audit trail and access control that sensitive umpire submissions deserve, and it costs you exactly one extra click compared to sending an email.
Once your umpire brief is ready, you can send it directly to the umpire from AwardLettr, either as a secure link to view online or as email attachments.
Sending the Brief
Open the umpire brief
From the appraisal detail page, open the brief you want to send.
Click "Send to Umpire"
This opens the send dialog where you can review the recipient and add a message.
Confirm the umpire email
Verify the umpire's email address. AwardLettr pre-fills this from the umpire information on the appraisal.
Choose how to deliver it
Pick secure link or email attachments. See "Choosing How to Deliver It" below.
Send
The umpire receives an email, either with a secure, personalized link to view the brief or with the documents attached directly.
Choosing How to Deliver It
When you send a brief, AwardLettr asks you to pick a delivery method: secure link or email attachments. Some umpires, especially attorney-umpires, will not click a hosted link at all, so attachments give you a reliable fallback.
If a document set is too large to email, click "Shrink for email" on the send screen. AwardLettr shrinks PDFs by recompressing the photos embedded inside them and, if that is not enough, splitting long files into numbered parts ("part 1 of 2," and so on) at full quality, sent as separate follow-up emails. A standalone oversized photo or file that is not a PDF cannot be shrunk this way; remove it from the brief or send it through the secure link instead. Your original documents in AwardLettr are never touched, only the copies going out by email.
If the umpire replies to the brief email asking for the documents directly, AwardLettr can recognize that request and send the attachments automatically from your connected mailbox. This is opt-in and applies to all your briefs: turn on "Auto-send attachments when a panel member replies asking" on the brief card (owner only). You get an email summary whenever it fires.
The Public Viewer
The umpire does not need an AwardLettr account. They access the brief through a secure link that opens a public viewer page. The link is unique to each recipient and cannot be guessed.
- View the brief content and all attached documents
- Download individual documents or the entire brief package
- Upload their own documents back to you through the same link
Tracking Views and Engagement
AwardLettr tracks when the umpire opens the brief link and views the content. You can see this engagement history from the brief detail page, so you know whether the umpire has reviewed your submission.
Downloading Briefs
You can download your own brief at any time from the brief detail page. For cases with multiple documents attached, use the bulk download option to get everything in a single ZIP file.
Documents Uploaded by the Umpire