By Asara Tenney (https://www.linkedin.com/in/asarantenney)
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.
[Some feedback I got during user testing included to research criminal matter further. I looked into specifically what would affect someone's ability to obtain a public defender in Maine. For a response to that feedback I was able to find the following information
See "INCOME TABLE FOR DETERMINATION OF ELIGIBILITY FOR ASSIGNED COUNSEL" . | Family Size | Gross Annual Income | | ----------------- |:----------------------------:| | 1 | $13,266 | | 2 | $17,864 | | 3 | $22,462 |
For each additional person add $4,598.
In the furture I would likly use this data to incorporate family size/ gross annual income calculations in the forms to help people calculate it themselves]
[I changed my code multiple times to include the different variables. please see below for the different versions First Draft Q(name):What is your name? X: Q(1.1):GOTO:2 Q(2): Is your matter Civil or Criminal? A: Civil. Q(2.1):GOTO:3 A: Criminal. Q(2.2):GOTO:4
Second Draft Q(1): Are you in need of a fee waiver or a public defender? A: Yes Q(name):What is your name? X: Q(1.1.1):GOTO:partyname Q(partyname):What is your opposing party's name? X: Q(1.1.2):GOTO:address Q(address):What is your address? X: Q(1.1.3):GOTO:telephone Q(telephone): What is your telephone number? X: Q(1.1.4):GOTO:3 Q(3): Is your matter Civil or Criminal? A: Civil. Q(3.1):GOTO:4 A: Criminal. Q(3.2):GOTO:5 (this version was not properly aligned and I got multiple errors)
See the final working code below Q(1): Are you in need of a fee waiver or a public defender? A: Yes Q(name):What is your name? X: Q(1.1.1):GOTO:partyname Q(partyname):What is your opposing party's name? X: Q(2.1):GOTO:address Q(address):What is your address? X: Q(3.1):GOTO:telephone Q(telephone): What is your telephone number? X: Q(4.1):GOTO:5 Q(5): Is your matter Civil or Criminal? A: Civil. Q(5.1):GOTO:6 A: Criminal. Q(5.2):GOTO:7]
[While I was able to input all the important questions/variables into the code itself in order to create the mailmerg for the "application to proceed without paying fees" form. This project will also needs a "supporting affidavit." In order for this to be viable in the real world, both forms would need to generate with all the detailed information, specific to the clients legal need.]