By John Kelley
I wrote a bot, and you can find it here. To write my bot, we used a tool called QnA Markup. Basically, you create an interactive dicision tree by nesting questions and answers. Here's my code.
I've gone through the project one scenarios: Here's my feedback. (1) "You may be eligible. Please contact the Rhode Island Public Defenders Office at http://www.ripd.org." My only comment on the first scenario is that there is no way to gage how much you make in regards to guidelines and how that impacts indigency.
(2) I genuinely have no idea if I can afford a lawyer in this scenario. Perhaps better direction on income and whether that would apply normally to the scenario would help. I get caught up on the question that says "After payment necessary for expenses for food, shelter, and medical care do you have sufficient income or assets to be able to afford counsel?" Honestly, I have no idea. I don't have an income currently so 22K a year may be enough but I don't really think it is...
[2:11]
(3) "How much do each of your parents/guardians make?" -> "Too much-placeholder for math." or "Under the poverty guideline-placeholder for math." As a juvenile, how am I supposed to know what is above or below the poverty guidelines? Think of it from the indigent juvenile's point and view and what they might or might not understand. Based on knowledge and experience, I assumed that the juvenile's family was below the guidelines, but I would have to look at the guidelines to be sure.
[2:14]
(4) This scenario trips me up everytime. If the spouse is seeking a divorce, do you calculate the guidelines to include the spouses income? Or, because she/he theoretically does not have access to those funds, do you only look at the funds of the spouse seeking assistance? Based on a guesstimate while working through the QnA, it seems that she qualifies either way but I am not sure.
[2:16]
(5) It seems that I am eligible under scenario five though, again, I am not too sure. You should add in some math for sure.
[2:17]
In regards to overall setup, the organization is great. You just need those federal poverty guidelines in there somehow.
I also contacted the Rhode Island Public Defenders office however, they did not return any phone calls or my emails
Email sent on 9/13 @ 9:49am to "malves@ripd.org":
"Hi Attorney Alves,
My name is John Kelley, and I am a student at Suffolk Law School in Boston.
I am doing research on public eligibility for assigned counsel and fee waivers and am wondering if you would have a brief moment to speak about the guidelines that the Rhode Island Courts use. It is my understanding from your website that enrollment in government assistance is an automatic qualifier, but other than that your office makes several different determinations for eligibility. If you have any type of document listing the guidelines or something to that nature, this will suffice. Otherwise, if you have a few moments to speak my cell phone is (339) 225-0180.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Best,
John J. Kelley IV Suffolk University Law School J.D. Candidate | May 2019 Staff Member, Moot Court Honor Board|Suffolk Journal of Trial & Appellate Advocacy jkelley2@suffolk.edu"
In my refinement of the bot I looked at what the Rhode Island Statute said with regards to what makes a person indigent. Rhode Island is a very lax state as far as defining the standard. See, R.I. Gen. Laws ยง 12-15-9 Eligibility for assistance
Every person who seeks the services of the office of the public defender under this chapter must make affidavit under oath that, after payment of necessary expenses for food, shelter and medical care, he or she does not have sufficient income or assets to enable him or her to retain counsel, nor is there any one to whom he or she is entitled to look for support who has that income or assets. The public defender, on his or her own instigation or at the request of a referring court, may require a further financial statement, may require relevant documents, and may conduct any investigation he or she deems appropriate. If the public defender, after examination and investigation of the financial statement, is satisfied that the person submitting it is an indigent defendant, the public defender or one of his or her assistants shall defend the person; provided, that if the public defender is satisfied that the person is not an indigent defendant, he or she shall notify the court which referred the person to the public defender's office of the determination that the person is not an indigent defendant.
the affivdavit can be found [here] https://www.courts.ri.gov/PublicResources/forms/District%20Court%20Forms/Motion,%20Affidavit,%20and%20Order%20to%20Proceed%20In%20Forma%20Pauperis.pdf
I changed gears at this point because it seemed to me that all i would need to do is to get this form filled out and then it was up to the public defenders office to ultimately make the subjective decision based off what was in the affidavit, but I also tried to incorporate some basic filters to make a recommendation on whether the applicant was, was not, probably was, probably was not or 50/50 either way.
The Rhode Island Public Defenders OFfice for criminal matter needs to have this type of bot on their website. Have called there office several times and sent an email all with no response indicates that they are entirely too busy to take the time to speak with a law student working on a project. This could be because much of their "free time" is taken up with evaluating these affidavits, where as an algorithim or more defined rule could be implemented to filter these affidivats and automatically disqualify or allow many of them based off their numbers freeing up more time for their office for other things such as the overwhelming amount of cases they have before them in which public counsel has been assigned.