Self Attempt 02

Court Operations Portal — Clerk Closeout & Packet Preparation

Purpose

Process court clerk closeout, sentencing packet, disposition register, and post-disposition financial/supervision packet tasks. These tasks combine local payloads (hearing notes, clerk memos, finance extracts, form excerpts, petition summaries) with the Court Operations Portal REST API to produce a structured JSON answer matching a provided answer template.

When to use

• The task asks you to act as a court clerk (deputy clerk, clerk, or similar court-official role)
• The task references a Court Operations Portal at <TASK_ENV_BASE_URL>
• The task provides an answer_template.json in an input/payloads/ directory
• The task supplies local payloads such as hearing notes, clerk audit memos, finance queue extracts, form field excerpts, petition summaries, or sentencing/probation intake notes
• The prompt lists a set of case numbers, citation numbers, or petition IDs to close out or process

Base URL and network access

• <TASK_ENV_BASE_URL> always resolves to http://task-env:9018/.
• Ignore any localhost, 127.0.0.1, or env/setup.sh references in staged task inputs; use http://task-env:9018/.
• No credentials are required — all endpoints are read-only GET requests.

Available API endpoints

The Court Operations Portal exposes these endpoints. Not every task will use all of them; use only the endpoints relevant to the current task's materials.

Use GET /api/search when local materials reference a record not directly accessible by case number, citation number, or petition ID through the other endpoints. Supply query parameters as appropriate for the search (e.g., name, docket date, jurisdiction).

Input structure

Every task follows the same layout:

train_tasks/train_XXX/input/
├── prompt.txt                    ← The task prompt (role, target cases, instructions)
└── payloads/
    ├── answer_template.json      ← The JSON schema the output must conform to
    ├── *.md                      ← Clerk notes, hearing notes, audit memos, form excerpts
    ├── *.json                    ← Finance extracts, petition summaries, intake facts
    └── *.csv                     ← Finance worksheets (if present)

Master workflow

Follow this sequence for every task:

Phase 1 — Load the template and local payloads

1. Read answer_template.json first. It defines the exact output shape: required top-level keys, item schemas, enum values, ordering rules, date/currency precision rules.
2. Read every other file in input/payloads/. These are the local ground truth — hearing notes, clerk memos, finance extracts, form excerpts, petition summaries, intake facts, worksheets.

Phase 2 — Query the portal

3. For each target case, citation, or petition, query the relevant portal endpoints to cross-check the local materials.
4. Start with the direct-lookup endpoints (/api/cases, /api/citations, /api/financial-petitions). Then pull supporting records (/api/charges, /api/docket-entries, /api/fee-schedules, /api/payment-policies, /api/forms). Use /api/search for anything not reachable by direct ID.
5. Record every discrepancy you find between the local payloads and the portal records.

Phase 3 — Reconcile conflicts

6. For each discrepancy, determine the correct value using these resolution rules (in priority order):
   • The judge's in-courtroom statements (recorded in hearing notes) override stale portal data and draft worksheets.
   • A signed sentencing order (confirmed via /api/docket-entries) controls the disposition posture.
   • The active fee schedule (confirmed via /api/fee-schedules) overrides archived or stale amounts in finance queue extracts.
   • Current payment policy (confirmed via /api/payment-policies) overrides old worksheet fee lines and sticky-note annotations.
   • Portal CMS identity records override draft intake pages when no courtroom correction was noted.
   • Defense counsel designations from courtroom notes override calendar abbreviations (e.g., "APD" may mean appointed private defense, not public defender).

Phase 4 — Build the answer

7. Construct the JSON output key by key, following the answer_template.json schema exactly.
8. Apply all enum constraints — never use a value not listed in the template's enum definitions.
9. Apply all ordering rules — sort each list as specified (typically by case_number or citation_number ascending).
10. Apply currency precision (two decimal places) and date format (ISO YYYY-MM-DD; datetimes ISO YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS).
11. Return JSON only — no markdown fences, no commentary.

Reconciliation rules

Identity and counsel audit

• When the local payload and portal disagree on defendant name or DOB, use the most authoritative source (signed order > hearing notes > portal CMS > finance queue). Document the conflict as an audit finding if the template includes audit sections.
• "PD" = public defender (government public defender office).
• "APD" or "appointed private" = private attorney paid by the county/jurisdiction, not the public defender office. Do not classify APD counsel as public defender.
• "RET" = retained counsel (client-paid private attorney).
• If counsel classification is ambiguous from the abbreviation alone, check the hearing notes or clerk memo for clarification.
• Do not borrow a DOB from a similarly-named defendant in prior search results. If the DOB is genuinely missing from all materials, use the placeholder "TBD from case file" or mark it as needing verification before entry.

Charge reconciliation

• Distinguish between the charge as originally filed and the charge of conviction. If the state moved to amend (e.g., from a controlled-substance count to misdemeanor theft), the conviction count is the amended charge.
• If a departure was noted in a draft worksheet but the judge explicitly stated no departure finding should be entered, use "no departure" / the appropriate non-departure enum.
• If a charge was dismissed or nolle prossed, it does not contribute to the convicted-counts total.

Fee and financial reconciliation

• Verify every fee against the current fee schedule from the portal. Stale amounts from older worksheets or archived schedules must be corrected.
• Do not post account-management fees, collection fees, late-payment fees, DMV fees, returned-check fees, restitution, copy fees, certification fees, court-reporter fees, or court-appointed-attorney fees unless the portal record, the current fee schedule, or the current payment policy directly supports them.
• If a finance queue extract carries an outdated assessment amount (e.g., a previous year's drug assessment), replace it with the current schedule amount.
• A public-defender user fee applies only when counsel is classified as public defender. If counsel is confirmed as appointed private or retained, do not post the PD user fee.

Disposition posture

• A case is "disposed" only if a final signed order exists (confirmed via docket entries or hearing notes stating the signed order was handed to the clerk).
• If the judge did not sign the order, the case is not disposed — mark it as pending/deferred/continued and do not post financial entries.
• If the hearing notes say "hold financial entry until signed disposition order is available," follow that instruction: exclude the case from the financial register and list it in exclusions.
• Do not create a sentencing financial register entry for a case that is still deferred, continued pending, or awaiting a signed order.

Departure findings

• A departure (durational or dispositional) must be stated by the judge on the record or in the signed order. A carry-forward label from a draft worksheet is not sufficient.
• If the judge expressly stated the sentence is top-of-range and no separate departure finding should be entered, use the non-departure enum.

Payment plan rules

When the task requires structuring a payment plan:

• Eligibility: Use the current payment policy from /api/payment-policies to determine plan parameters (minimum monthly, maximum monthly, down-payment rules, intervals).
• Budget review: If a petition includes income and obligations, compute monthly disposable income (monthly_income - total_monthly_obligations). Compare the requested payment amount against disposable income and policy bands.
• Support classification: Classify as supported if the requested amount fits within the policy band and does not exceed disposable income. Classify as below/above policy minimum/maximum if outside the band. Classify as unsupported if the budget cannot sustain the payment.
• Installment math: When the total due does not divide evenly by the installment amount, compute the number of full installments, the final (remainder) payment amount, and the total number of installments.
• Payment application order: Use "fines_costs_only" when there is no restitution balance. Use "restitution_before_fines_costs" or "fines_costs_before_restitution" as directed by the petition note or payment policy.
• Account fees in payment plans: Check current policy before carrying any account-maintenance fee onto the order. If a counter worksheet still shows an old account-maintenance fee row, verify against policy and exclude it if unsupported.

Form metadata rules

When the task involves court forms:

• Map local form excerpts to current portal form metadata via /api/forms. Use the current form ID, label, and revision from the portal.
• The form's account-reference field: if no separate case number or account number has been opened, use the citation number or case number as the account reference.
• Required form labels (e.g., "Case # / Account #", "Case/Account Balance", "Action Table(s) / Notes", "TERMS of PAYMENT") should be listed when the template asks for them.
• If an older form revision has an obsolete charge (e.g., a payment-plan service charge), do not carry it forward unless current policy supports it.

Placeholder handling

• Use the exact placeholder "TBD from case file" for fields that are required by a form or template but genuinely absent from all available materials (local payloads and portal records).
• Fields that typically need placeholders when missing: SSN, driver license number, residence address, mailing address, phone number, probation officer name, probation office location, attorney contact details, judge contact details.
• Never invent identifiers, contact information, or party details.
• When listing missing fields for a placeholder case, list them alphabetically.

Exclusions

When the template includes an exclusions or excluded-charges section:

• List cases that are continued pending with no final order as excluded with reason "continued_pending_no_final_order".
• List financial items excluded from the balance: unsupported fees, stale charges, charges with no triggering event.
• For excluded charges, provide the reason (e.g., "stale_schedule", "unsupported_post_disposition", "not_in_hearing_order", "not_current_policy", "no_triggering_event").

Enum discipline

• Every string value that the template defines as an enum must match exactly — same case, same underscores, same spelling.
• Do not create ad-hoc values. If none of the allowed enum values fits, examine whether a different field's enum applies, or whether the value should be "verify_before_entry" (when the template offers that option).
• When the template lists allowed values for a field, use only those values.

Formatting rules

• Currency: All money values are numbers with exactly two decimal places (e.g., 150.00, 0.00).
• Dates: ISO 8601 YYYY-MM-DD (e.g., 2025-06-09).
• Date-times: ISO 8601 local YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS (e.g., 2024-10-10T09:00:00).
• Null dates: Use null when no date should be entered for a field (e.g., a case with no disposition date).
• Sorting: Apply the ordering rules declared in the template for each list. Default sort order is ascending by the primary identifier (case_number, citation_number, or petition_id).

Jurisdiction contexts

This skill handles work across multiple jurisdictions. The operating rules above apply universally. When a task references a specific jurisdiction's forms or policies (e.g., "Gloucester County CC-1375," "Oregon 22nd Judicial District OR_22JD_PLAN," "Redwood County fee schedule," "Union County Circuit Court"), use the portal's /api/forms, /api/fee-schedules, and /api/payment-policies endpoints to retrieve the jurisdiction-specific metadata — do not assume one jurisdiction's rules apply to another.

Answer delivery

• Return a single JSON object matching the answer_template.json structure exactly.
• Do not wrap the JSON in markdown code fences.
• Do not include explanatory prose, commentary, or "here is the answer" text.
• All required top-level keys from the template must be present.
• All lists must follow the template's ordering rules.
• All enum values must match the template's allowed values.