Eviction Fighter is a docassemble interview, built with the Legal Elements Library, to help eviction defendants file answers in eviction cases.
Eviction Fighter & the Legal Elements Library allows interview authors to use the powerful features of docassemble without having to learn YAML or other aspects of docassemble that can be intimidating at first.
Eviction Fighter & the Legal Elements Library is currently in development. A beta version can be tested now. At first, the interview will be designed primarily for attorneys use in assisting individuals. Attorneys will be the best testers, in regards to getting the substantive law and arguments correct. We will then build interviews designed for non-attorney advocates, and potentially for individuals without access to an attorney. One of the strengths of Eviction Fighter is that these interviews for different audiences will be built using the same Legal Elements Library, because docassemble allows users to pick different roles. Different roles based on the same library will ensure that testing and improvements are not siloed.
The most important aspect to create effective online resources to help provide access to justice is the ability to adapt and update those resources based on feedback. The primary goal in developing Eviction Fighter and the Legal Element Library was to make it easier for advocates and topic-area experts to create and adapt interviews, regardless whether an advocate has a software license, coding ability, or money for a contractor.
Eviction Fighter makes this much easier for an advocate. An Eviction Fighter interview can be immediately updated by rewriting legal information in the Legal Elements Library, which is currently a database in AirTable. AirTable is an online service that makes editing a database as easy as editing a spreadsheet. In fact, AirTable is easier than a spreadsheet, because of the many features of AirTable. AirTable also has an API which allows for interaction with docassemble and Eviction Fighter.
We will likely create a database to host the Legal Elements Library eventually. However, for now, AirTable is such an effective tool to learn about databases. In addition, Open Referral uses and recommends AirTable for implementations of its Human Services Data Standards.
A valid criticism of docassemble is that there is a steep learning curve to using it, despite the excellent documentation and support. The "object-oriented" nature of the interviews can be complex and seem counter-intuitive. It can seem backwards becaust that's sort of what it is - docassemble makes you create your solution and then figures out what it needs to ask to get you there.
There is also a steep learning curve to "thinking like a lawyer" - the first year of law school is often said to be dedicated to learning that skill alone.
But "object-oriented" programming and thinking like a lawyer are essentially the same set of thinking tools
One problem with many form answers is that the forms are similar to answers attorneys use when they represent tenant defendants. Ohio, like many states, is a "notice-pleading" state, which means that pleadings like complaints and answers only have to allege the existence of facts, not prove them in the pleading. For attorneys, this works fine, because it
Interviews in docassemble and structuring legal information as an object allows for legal localization and internationalization.
If the same data structure for legal elements is used across jurisdiction, then design improvements for the user interface can easily travel across borders too.