Re: [Openefm-development] Re: OpenEFM question

[Jason V. C. <ja...@va...>]

Quoth Jeremiah Jahn, on Thu, 03 Mar 2005 09:00:57 -0600:

> Not sure if I like this or not. How exactly do you derive the intent
> of the filing. Our assumption has always been the following. No Case
> number, they must want a new case so our submitCase method is called.

This is also our criterion for a new vs.  existing case.  Normally,
party information need only be sent with the initial filing, and we have
no plans for the EFM to add or update party data to existing cases. 
That would seem out of scope.

> All Documents get pushed through our submitDocument method. Finally if
> a party description is included in the data, the cms data is compared
> and if any differences are found then our submitLitigant/Attorney
> method is called. Does this sound correct to you or is there a better
> way of handling LegalXML. Or is 2GEFS a better place to start?

I'm not sure how the word "correct" applies here.  Technically, I think
all these approaches would work.  The real question is, how do most
court systems need it to work, and that is not a question for me, for I
am not of the legal industry.  I was at the E-Courts conference last
December, and from what I saw, this analysis just hasn't been done: 
there is no consensus.

> :) okay let me try and add some coherency to it...I was under the
> assumption that the OpenEFM API was the previously mentioned four

There really is no OpenEFM API, in fact.  OpenEFM is designed to support
any format it needs to support, and it has always been based on one
external interface or another.  We have a CMS API that works with our
transceivers, but that is not the interface between the EFM and the CMS.
 This may be confusing.

> methods. Under that assumption I was curious to know whether or not if
> someone used the addParty method would the XML not only containing the
> meta data to describe the new party, but also the binary data of the
> document adding the party to a case. 

What is meant by "if someone used the addParty method", exactly?  The
only "addParty method" in our system currently is the 2GEFS CMS API call
I've begun implementing.  The XML format for that is already defined
sans binary data.

--Jason Van Cleve
counterclaim