Environment and Tools for Creating Legal Documents Online

Anton Tomažič

INform, Knowledge Distribution Ltd.

[email-masked]

Matija Jamnik

INform, Knowledge Distribution Ltd.

[email-masked]

Primož Ličen

INform, Knowledge Distribution Ltd.

[email-masked]

Abstract

Complex legal documents can now be created online, using special smart templates (procedures, questionnaires, instructions, comments, links, legal background etc.). Special portal for knowledge distribution is the place where authors and users meet in a friendly environment, using all the necessary tools just with their browser. In the future much more elements of AI will be added to the ‘smart forms’ thus upgrading them to the ‘intelligent forms’.

1.              Introduction

The modern world exposes us to an increasing amount of information. This applies to our private lives as well as to the business environment. We are both the receivers and the generators of this information. Modern information technology (IT) has so far developed many more tools and applications for receiving (i.e., searching for) information than it has for generating it. However, the saved time and the added value for the commercial mediating of information can be much higher than the added value of the now already traditional, information industry. Users could save a lot more time by having access to the intellectual output that enables them to submit their information to appropriate addresses (using many kinds of smart e-forms) than by being able to search for information, which is often only the first step of the working process.

Our intellectual activities are not always unique and innovative: very often they are routine tasks that require a lot of repetition and, as a result, a lot of time is required for the same mental processes. So, apart from the “passive” information that is obtained with the help of the traditional IT industry, users should also be able to access an archive of “active” information that can support their various intellectual tasks that are performed in their private and business lives. As a consequence of being able to skip these routine tasks, users would then have additional time for more important and more creative activities. As a result, their productivity would increase – and they would be prepared to pay for access to easily available and useful applications much more than they would for passive information.

These observations are already reflected in various types of business initiatives and can be found on the web (various forms, templates and other tools), but they seem to have been created rather randomly and fractionally. So far they have not yet appeared as a well-planned, well-rounded attempt to set up a new industry of knowledge exchange using the latest IT–web technology. Focusing on a specific way of bringing together the authors and the users of knowledge who are active in all fields of human activity will result in a commercial advantage: those who manage to design, for the first time, an appropriate business model and set up a network allowing a well-planned and monitored exchange of knowledge will be entitled to an appropriate fee for the resulting services. Law has been very slow, compared to other professions, in the development and use of Information Technology. The use of IT by the judiciary and other legal professionals is growing rapidly. IT now has a role to play in helping parties resolve disputes. Not only are legal knowledge based systems appearing as tools that provide legal advice to the disputing parties, but there are numerous systems that actually (help) settle disputes. They are emerging in research labs and in the market place and are defined as Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) services.

2.              New Online Services for Knowledge Distribution

The above conclusions lead us to an entirely new industry, which will cover the following services and activities:

-     the provision of a web-based information infrastructure for the purpose of knowledge exchange between authors and interested users;

-     the creation, installation and maintenance of various templates and procedures available on the internet;

-     the development and maintenance of the technology used for direct communication between providers of different intellectual services (counselors, experts, valuators, translators, lawyers, notaries, independent authors) and their clients;

-     the research, development, implementation and maintenance of various web-based forms, with a special emphasis on e-administration and e-government;

-     easier and faster response of the public administration, because of the better input (error free because of the automatic checking of the smart forms), including “on the fly” decisions and other official acts.

3.              Knowledge Distribution in the Legal Field

This new model of operation might lead to another interesting consequence concerning lawyers (though not positive for everybody): the web will enable us to obtain (create) a number of documents based on various templates (contracts, wills, settlements, applications, etc) that will be cheaper than the documents obtained directly from lawyers. It will soon become clear that not all the services provided by lawyers are real legal advice, and that they generate a lot of income by simply providing administrative services that can, in everyday practice, be done by their secretaries. No law forbids non-legal persons from preparing their own documents (even legal ones!) or from obtaining help from other non-legal persons if they can, in this way, save some money. As a consequence, some lawyers might make less money by doing routine tasks, but they will have more time for the provision of real legal assistance. However, some lawyers (probably the young and computer-literate) will be able to earn more than they have been earning so far if they get in touch with an appropriate company and participate in the preparation and updating of templates. The results of such cooperation will be beneficial to everybody: the productivity of the lawyers will increase and the costs of the end users will decrease.

4.              Producing Legal Documents for Administration Purposes

Although the idea of knowledge distribution on the Internet had been developed as a general approach to solving various problems people encounter on a daily basis, especially the ones linked with creating and producing different legal and non-legal documents, it soon became obvious that one of its most meaningful realizations should be in the field of public administration. Namely, there is no other domain of human living that to such an extent would require us to provide data and information in a formalized and prescribed way.

In order to make the idea of knowledge distribution applicable to the needs and purposes of public administration and its efforts to bring its services closer to citizens and businesses and to make these services faster and more satisfying, two basic rules had to be observed: 1. smart electronic templates (i.e. the on-line electronic fill-in forms) had to have the capacity to guide users through the fill-in process as well as the capacity of “real time (on-the-click)” adjustment to the data or choice (answer) provided by those users; 2. production of smart electronic templates had to be made simple in a way that any public servant could manufacture them on-line without the help of a qualified computer programmer or any other computer expert. If these premises are met, public administrations can only benefit from the cooperation and synergy with the private sector in developing user friendly smart e-forms.

Today one could hardly find a public administration that does not implement or at least plan some sort of e-Administration or e-Government. But not all of them have realized that the real quality and fast progress can only be achieved through synergy and cooperation between the public and the private sector. The public administration of the Republic of Slovenia were among the first to have started to implement the policy of free “re-use” of the information from the public sector. Instead of developing its own detailed solutions the state administration provides just an entrance point (for administrative procedures) on the official central web portal (e-Administration, see Picture 2) where commercial products (input-forms) are not only tolerated, but also welcomed. Citizens therefore have several possibilities: to either use simple forms for free or to choose among different commercial ones with different prices. Companies that have developed better products (that can save users more time) would be able to sell them at the higher prices than those that are left behind. For the public administration it only matters, that the input data (the application) is complete and of high quality, no matter which form is being used.

5.              Traditional Input Forms are Insufficient

It is the undisputed fact that a large proportion of users of public administration services have had problems and difficulties when communicating with governmental bodies  and agencies and/or institutions of local self-government in order to either assert and defend their rights and legal privileges or simply just to gain relevant information or data. In each case they have had to convey certain data and to make certain claims, either in paper or electronically. As the majority of users are unaware of what data should be conveyed and how legal claims should be made, the public administration usually provides them with forms, i.e. documents (paper or electronic) with blank spaces for insertion of required or requested information. Although such forms can be helpful and a welcome solution for simple matters (e.g. when a citizen applies for a new personal identification card or a passport), they are insufficient in more complex cases where more data is to be conveyed (e.g. when appealing a magistrate’s decision on traffic misdemeanor).

The main deficiency of these forms is the fact that they are fixed, “flat”, i.e. static and that they are abstract which means there is usually only one form for different real life situations. Even if there is more than one form, it is impossible to cover all of the actual real life possibilities with abstract forms. Therefore the user who fills in such a form is invariably confused as there are blank spaces that do not apply given her or his concrete situation, while on the other hand there could be missing blank spaces as she or he perhaps wanted to add additional information that could be relevant for the case and/or to make additional claims. At the same time, adding extensive instructions for the users as to who should fill in which blank spaces can generate even more confusion.

6.              Smart Electronic Templates are Built “On the Fly”

The Internet application that enables the manufacturing and on-line publishing of smart electronic templates (called the SEPO) has the aspiration of offering both the public administration and its users a new and unique approach to the way users communicate with public administration. Therefore it had to overcome the problem deriving from the fact that there cannot be a form for each and every real situation that individual users may find themselves in. In other words, the forms had to be made flexible so that they would adjust to the concrete situation of each individual user.

The solution to the problem was the division of forms (or in this case smart electronic templates as we call them) into sections which in the process of completion are or are not executed depending on whether or not certain conditions have been met. The application simultaneously calculates whether or not these conditions have been met on the basis of answers[1] users provide and/or on the basis of choices they make[2] when completing the form.

Each section consists of one or more variables (each variable being represented by a question that the application poses to the user) and of text that is displayed in the final document and which, inter alia, reflects the value of the variable, i.e. the answer the user has given or the choice she or he has made.

Each template may consist of any number of sections and each section may contain any number of variables and any amount of text. Each section can have any number of conditions attached to it. Since the conditions are simultaneously calculated only the sections the conditions of which have been met are executed, meaning the user only gets the questions from these sections. As a result only the text from these sections (and the values of its variables) is displayed in the final document. This procedure ensures that only the questions that correspond to users’ concrete situation are displayed which in effect means that each form is custom-made to suit the individual user and his unique status and needs.

In addition there is the possibility of equipping each question users have to answer with any number of interactive explanations, examples, warnings, recommendations, web links etc. in order to provide for necessary information to help users decide and to make their answers and choices easier and more reliable. If the user at any step during the completion process finds any of the previous answers and/or choices to be inappropriate, she or he can always go back and correct them.

7.              Smart Electronic Templates are Easy to Make

If the system of smart electronic templates is to be widely applicable for any public administration and local self government institution (including small municipalities of under 5.000 inhabitants), creation, customization and on-line publication of the templates had to be made as easy as possible.

And it was, as it takes no more than just basic knowledge of word processing and Internet browsing to perform the above tasks. Every public servant in the EU countries is (should be) in possession of these skills.

8.              The Steps in Producing Electronic Templates

The producer of a smart electronic template (author) has three basic tasks to do in order to make the template work. She or he must 1. Define the sections and variables within those sections, 2. Define the text of each section, 3. Define the conditions for the sections the execution of which depends on whether or not one or more of those conditions have been met.

When defining the variables the creator of a template firstly has to choose what kind of variable it should be (whether it should be an insert box, a drop down menu, a radio button list or a checkbox) and secondly she or he has to define the question which users of the template will have to answer. If the variable is an insert box type, validation of users’ answers is possible.[3] If the variable is of any other type, the different possibilities users must choose from must be set. To this point it is all simple word processing and “OK and Cancel” Internet browsing.

When the sections and their variables have been defined, text of each section must be written and the variables must be inserted into their predetermined positions in the text. For this purpose a special .xml text designer has been developed. It resembles and acts as any usual text editor such as, for example, MS Word. Text is written in the usual manner while the variables that have previously been defined are incorporated into the text using the drag and drop method. The person who designs the template sets the corresponding position in the text for each variable.[4]

Defining conditions for any of the sections is similarly simple. First of all, the base of the condition has to be determined choosing between variables from previous sections and previous sections themselves. In step two the value of chosen variable must be set if the base of the condition is a variable. If during the completion process the set value was reached the condition has been met and the conditioned section will be executed (given there are either no other conditions for this section or if there is more than one condition that all of the conditions have been met). If the base of the condition is a previous section it has to be determined whether there is a positive or a negative relationship between the two sections.[5] Any number of conditions of any type can be combined; in this case the section will be executed only if all of the conditions have been met.

9.              Friendly Environment for the Web Application

The web application for producing smart electronic templates is actually a set of tools which work in a unified environment. The environment is a framework for all common feature sets that are used by the tools. These are database connectivity, granular access right management etc. Such an environment is a base for a wide configurability of the whole application. All of the application's tools and contents can be specified for each specific user or group of users. Each user or group can have personalized tools and personalized contents.

10.           Tools for Authors and Users

There are many implemented tools that enable creation and maintenance of documents and users. Tools also offer possibility for commercial use of the web application. Some tools are made for support, e.g. archive, help, search etc.

One of the goals was to make the use of application as simple as possible. There are many features that emulate use of a desktop application as well. These are menus, simultaneous work within multiple windows etc. In this way the best characteristics of both web and desktop applications are offered in one solution.

There are other tools for producing various forms and templates on the market, but this system is the first and the only one that functions 100% via web browser (for users, authors, editors and administrators alike). It is also very general purpose oriented as it can be used in any aspect of the human life (business and private), wherever human knowledge is being distributed.

11.           Support for Multiple Languages and Localization

Web application has implemented localization on two different levels: multilingual usage of tools and even more importantly - dynamic content localization.

Web application is designed in a way that enables relatively easy implementation of future enhancements such as support for administrative decisions, tool for automated creation of acts of all kinds etc.

Multi language and multi culture support offer possibility of simultaneous translation of documents and belonging elements into more languages. Documents are handled independently of source language. As a result we can get documents in more than one language or culture at same time. Adaptations for desired culture (language, writing style...) are executed on document's author's text and on end-users input synchronously.

Web application supports use of all world official cultures with appropriate languages and writing styles.

12.           Technical Background

Web application is written in open source .NET framework. Database is SQL Server. Web server is the IIS.

Major business logic is executed in .NET environment. Part of operations performs on clients' browsers as Javascript. Database queries which demand more computer power run as stored procedures on database server.

Application was written from scratch. Objects used in it are designed so that support the use of future functionalities that are not implemented yet.

All of the management can be done through a web browser. Authors need the MS Internet Explorer 6+ whereas any other user can use any other popular web browser. This type of client does not need distribution of any upgrade of application. Authors, users and even administrators can use services from anywhere.

Documents are proper XML/HTML documents. That is why linking to other sources is much simpler. That access offers possibility of use of all XML standards for future functionalities like digital signature of documents etc.

The architecture of a document allows for different types of content to be merged in the final document as per authors' requirements. Even more important, the final output depends on specified end-user's input thus adding value to the document's content.

The content of each document is fully customizable. Creating and editing text in a document is as simple as using any of the most popular text editors. The tool for editing documents enables authors to insert any field or condition that meets their criteria. These elements and their specific values make up a highly personalized finalized product.

Structure of documents supports changing of document's content to momentary demands that depends on end-user inputs. Basic goal is that authors can implement program logic without programming. In that way the application is a kind of programming tool which does not require knowing technology from authors - just a logical and analytical consideration. Program code for fulfilling conditions is generated on-the-flay in the background for each end-user input. At the end of document this code is executed again and shows appropriate final document.

Most of application is made in .NET environment which require pre-compiled code. Code for documents' conditions is executed momentarily, therefore it is written as script. Application offers a wide range variables and suitable conditions for desired document's output, but in the same time offers simple input of  program code in VBScript for advanced authors. That makes possible any kind of program logic which author can imagine.

Application enables use of secure connection with clients (SSL). System of rights also offers security and configurability of each page and its elements. Rights act as rights in windows environment. Rights are read, write, execute, etc. Rights can be also time limited.

Application can run on more servers simultaneously. This suits heavy loads caused by more clients' requests in peak traffic hours.

Web application also offers use of documents for everyone or just for subscribers with their own domain and other adaptable settings. This can separate subscriber's users from others on the same server. These subscribers can be various state services or any other.

13.           Conclusions

As a figure of speech we can declare:

·     that most of online forms that nowadays exist on the internet are in a “stone age” phase of their potential development.

·     that smart forms presented here are now entering the “industrial age”

·     that further development of intelligent forms with more and more artificial intelligence features will bring us to the “modern age”

Picture 1. The use of internet for interaction with public authorities in the European Union

Picture 2. The official E-Administration portal of the Republic of Slovenia

Picture 3. The starting point of the questionnaire with an explanation as to the legal nature and purpose of the form

Picture 4. A radio-button type of question serving as a base for three different conditions

Picture 5. The execution of the section “family name(s)” due to user’s choosing of the “Family name(s)” possibility in previous section

Picture 6. The execution of the section “family name(s)” due to user’s choosing the “Family name(s)” option in previous section

Picture 7. The final document in the case of user’s choosing of the “Family name(s)” option

Picture 8. Complete administration of the system is performed via the same console shared by both  end users and authors as well as the managers of the system

[1] Users write their answers into blank boxes.

[2] Users make their choices using drop down lists, radio buttons and/or check boxes. The choices are given in advance.

[3] For example if the questions goes “What is the e-mail address of the applicant?”, the users’ answer should be “[email-masked]”, otherwise the application will produce a warning and will not let users any further until the answer is corrected. It is the same with date, numbers, maximum number of letters users may type etc.

[4] When the questionnaire is completed in its entirety by the user the text that was written and formatted in the .xml designer is reproduced in the final document. Instead of variables the acquired values of variables (i.e. the answers and/or the values of the chosen options) are reproduced in the corresponding positions within the final document.

[5] For example if there is a positive linkage between two sections the condition would read as “section 4 will be executed is section 2 is executed”. If there is a negative linkage, the condition would read as “section 4 will be executed is section 2 is NOT executed”.