Court Closeout Reconciliation

Court Closeout & Post-Disposition Reconciliation

What these tasks are

A deputy-clerk task. You are handed local paper-trail materials (bench/hearing notes, a finance queue or clerk worksheet, a financial petition + budget, form excerpts, an audit memo) that are known to be noisy — they contain draft values, stale carry-forwards, bench shorthand, ambiguous counsel labels, and sticky-note "should we add X fee?" questions. Your job is to reconcile them against the authoritative Court Operations Portal and produce one JSON object that a clerk could post to the register.

The output shape, keys, enums, ordering, and rounding are dictated by the task's input/payloads/answer_template.json. That template is the contract — read it first and last. Field names and enum vocabularies differ from task to task; this skill teaches the method, and you map the method's results onto whatever names the template uses.

Inputs you will get

• input/prompt.txt — the jurisdiction, target case/citation/petition IDs, the hearing/closeout date, and which output sections are wanted.
• input/payloads/answer_template.json — the required schema (keys, enums, ordering rules, currency/date formats). Obey it exactly.
• input/payloads/* — the noisy local materials (.md, .json, .csv).
• environment_access.md (repo root) — the portal base URL and allowed endpoints.

Step 1 — Read the contract and the materials

1. Read answer_template.json end to end. Note the top-level keys, every nested object's required keys, the enum lists, the ordering_rules, and the currency/date/datetime formats. Build the output to match this exactly.
2. Read prompt.txt for the target IDs, jurisdiction, and the governing date (hearing date / disposition date / petition submitted date).
3. Read every payload. Treat their numbers and labels as candidates to verify, not facts.

Step 2 — Query the portal (authoritative source)

Get the base URL from environment_access.md (GDPEVO_ENV_BASE_URL=…). Do not hardcode it — it can change per task. All endpoints answer GET, return {"count": N, "results": [ … ]}, and accept exact-match filters by field name, e.g. ?case_number=…, ?citation_number=…, ?jurisdiction_code=…, ?petition_id=…. The search endpoint takes ?q=….

Helper: scripts/portal.sh <endpoint> [key=value ...] (reads the base URL from environment_access.md / $GDPEVO_ENV_BASE_URL). Example: scripts/portal.sh cases case_number=<TARGET_CASE_NUMBER>.

Endpoint roles (full field list in reference/portal_endpoints.md):

Always fetch the record for each target ID plus the jurisdiction's fee schedules, payment policy, and relevant forms.

Step 3 — Reconcile by source precedence

This is the heart of the task. Conflicts are deliberate. Resolve them with these rules (full trap catalog in reference/reconciliation_rules.md):

• Identity (name, DOB): the CMS /api/cases (or /api/citations) record wins. If the CMS defendant_dob is null/absent and no reliable source supplies it, use the placeholder string the materials require (e.g. TBD from case file) and the "verify" identity action. Never copy a DOB from an /api/search look-alike hit.
• Actual disposition (plea, finding, convicted vs amended/dismissed counts, fine, jail, probation, departure): the signed order / on-the-record hearing note for that hearing date wins over a stale CMS charge screen or a draft worksheet. A CMS charge row can still show a superseded count, a departure, or an assessment that the amended conviction removed — trust the hearing note.
• Counsel classification: reconcile ambiguous raw labels (APD, PD C. Hill, APPT PRIVATE, RET) against the on-record clarification in the note/memo. "Appointed private counsel, county pay" = appointed_private, not public_defender — and it suppresses the public-defender user fee.
• Fee amounts: the current portal fee schedule wins over any worksheet number. Current = the row for that jurisdiction/type whose end_date is null and whose effective_date is on/before the disposition date. A row with a past end_date is stale — exclude it.
• Departure: an on-the-record "top of range / no separate departure finding" means no departure, even if a draft/CMS screen shows one. Misdemeanors are typically "not evaluated"; pending matters "not entered".
• Unsigned / continued / deferred: if no final order was entered, do not post financials. Set the hold/pending status, empty/zero the fees, use the hold / "no disposition" docket code, and add the matter to the exclusions list with the next status-check date from the note and posting-allowed = false.

Record each resolved conflict in the audit/audit_findings section using the template's issue_type / resolution_source (or audit_flag / recommended_resolution) enums — pick the enum value, never free prose.

Step 4 — Fees, balances, and exclusions

Post a fee only if (a) it is on the current portal fee schedule for the jurisdiction as mandatory/applicable, or (b) a signed order/hearing note directly imposes it. Otherwise exclude it.

• Discretionary fees (e.g. public-defender user fee) post only when their trigger holds (counsel is public defender). Account/maintenance fee posts only when payment-policies.account_fee > 0 for the jurisdiction.
• Never invent account-management, collection/collections-referral, late-payment, DMV/reinstatement, returned-check, traffic-school, copy, certification, restitution, court-appointed-attorney, or court-reporter fees. Each unsupported item goes in the exclusions list with the template's reason enum. Map the cause to the reason vocabulary the template provides, e.g.: stale/expired schedule → stale_schedule / not_current_policy; requires an event that never happened → no_triggering_event / no_order_or_policy_support; not in the signed order → not_in_hearing_order; unsupported substitution → unsupported_post_disposition; not part of the collectible balance → not_part_of_balance.
• Total due = sum of supported balances: fines & costs + restitution (if a balance exists) + surcharge (traffic) + current-schedule mandatory fees, minus everything excluded. Restitution is included in the balance when present; the policy's restitution_priority sets the payment_application_order.
• Traffic fine tier: take violation_code from the citation record, then read the matching current standard_fine (and county_surcharge) from the fee schedule. Tiers like "100 mph or greater" are keyed by the code, not by amount-over-limit alone.

Step 5 — Payment / installment plans

When a plan is approved, compute it with the policy, not by guessing. Helper: scripts/installments.py (see --help). The mechanics:

• remaining = total_due − down_payment. Working in cents: regular_count = remaining // monthly full installments of monthly, and a final_payment_amount = remaining − regular_count·monthly if it doesn't divide evenly; total_installments = regular_count + 1. (If it divides evenly, the last full payment is the final one.) Map these three quantities onto whatever names the template uses (full_payment_count/full_installment_count/payment_count, final_payment_amount, total_installments).
• Validate the requested monthly against the policy band min_monthly..max_monthly and against disposable income (income − obligations). Classify support with the template's enum (supported / below-minimum / above-maximum / needs-review).
• first_due_date: use the explicitly approved date if the note/citation states one; otherwise submitted_date + first_due_days. Validate any candidate date in the payload against this rule.
• final_due_date = first_due_date + (total_installments − 1) calendar months (same day-of-month).
• return_to_court_date = final_due_date + return_to_court_offset_days. Its time/trigger come from the policy/notes; absent a stated time, use the docket-call time evident in the materials.

Step 6 — Forms, probation, license, placeholders

• Form selection: pick the /api/forms row for the jurisdiction and form family; use its label/form_id for the template's enum. Traffic account reference = the citation number when no separate account exists (per the form's placeholder_instruction).
• Probation referral (CC-1375-style): if supervised probation was ordered, "prepare referral" with conviction date, term months, and report datetime from the notes. If no referral order was signed, mark "not ordered", term 0, report datetime null.
• License order (CC-1379-style): suspension months from the sentence/worksheet; start basis is the conviction date (a release-from-confinement date does not replace it); end = start + months (calendar months). DL number → placeholder if unknown; DUI conviction → basis dui_conviction.
• Placeholders: use the exact required placeholder string only for form-required fields genuinely absent from all materials (SSN, driver license #, address, phone, probation officer/office). Never invent identifiers or contacts. Collect them into the placeholder list with the right reason enum (missing_identifier / missing_contact / missing_office_detail / missing_party_detail), sorted as the template instructs (and any missing_fields arrays sorted alphabetically).

Step 7 — Totals, then format and self-check

• Recompute every total/count from the items you actually posted (assessed vs held counts, per-category fee sums, grand/batch totals). They must tie out to the line items.
• Emit JSON only if the template says so — no markdown, no commentary.
• Enforce the template's formats: ISO YYYY-MM-DD dates, YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS datetimes, money as JSON numbers rounded to two decimals, integers as integers, null exactly where allowed.
• Enum discipline: every enum-typed field must be a verbatim value from the template's list. Never substitute prose; use verify_before_entry-style values only when the template offers them and the fact is genuinely unresolved.
• Apply every ordering rule (sort arrays by the specified key, ascending).
• Final pass: for each required top-level and nested key in the template, confirm it is present, correctly typed, and sourced from the authoritative record or a reconciliation rule above — not from an unverified payload value.

Reference files

• reference/portal_endpoints.md — every endpoint's fields and how to query them.
• reference/reconciliation_rules.md — the full conflict/trap catalog with the reasoning behind each resolution.
• scripts/portal.sh — curl wrapper for the portal.
• scripts/installments.py — installment schedule + date calculator.