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Jurisdiction & court configuration WIP

All jurisdiction-specific branding, court rules, and document mappings live in single, human-readable YAML files located at efile_app/efile/static/config/states/{jurisdiction}.yaml.

1. High-level jurisdiction metadata​

The jurisdiction section configures the application title, brand identity, navigation logos, official court statements, and support contact details.

# efile_app/efile/static/config/states/illinois.yaml

jurisdiction:
  name: "Illinois eFile"
  code: "illinois"
  display_name: "Illinois"
  brand_name: "LITEFile"
  logo: "img/litefile-logo.svg"
  logo_alt: "LITEFile logo"
  icon: "fas fa-balance-scale"
  svg: "img/IL.svg"
  api_endpoint: "/api/illinois"
  official_court_name: "the Illinois Courts"
  official_tool_statement: "LITEFile is an official, approved electronic filing tool of the Illinois Courts."
  court_logos:
    - name: "Illinois Courts"
      src: "img/court-logo-illinois.svg"
      alt: "Seal of the Supreme Court of Illinois"
  partner_logos:
    - name: "Illinois Legal Aid Online (ILAO)"
      src: "img/logo-ilao.png"
      alt: "Illinois Legal Aid Online logo"
      url: "https://www.illinoislegalaid.org/"
      role: "Project & Funding Partner"
  help_url: "https://www.ilcourthelp.gov/"
  help_number: "833-411-1121"
  contact_email: "[email protected]"
  contact_address: "Suffolk University Law School LIT Lab, 120 Tremont Street, Boston, MA"

Configurable elements:​

  • official_tool_statement: Displayed on the footer and login splash screen to provide court legitimacy.
  • court_logos & partner_logos: Array of logos displayed across the landing page, header, and footer.
  • help_url & help_number: Shown to filers when an error occurs or when a filing is rejected.
  • contact_email & contact_address: Displayed on the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy pages.

2. Court-specific requirements & clerk contact details​

Different courts within the same state often have distinct divisional rules, cover sheet requirements, or clerk contact information. Configure these using court_specific_requirements:

court_specific_requirements:
  "cook:cd1": # Cook County Circuit Court - County Division
    contact:
      name: "Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County - County Division"
      phone: "312-603-5030"
      email: "[email protected]"
      url: "https://www.cookcountyclerkofcourt.org/"
    case_types:
      name_change:
        documents:
          county_division_cover_sheet:
            label: "County Division Cover Sheet"
            requirement: always
            role: supporting
Clerk contact information

When a filing is rejected by a court clerk, LITEFile automatically surfaces the clerk's phone number and email address directly on the filer's status screen so they know who to call for assistance.

3. Wording that differs by state​

Courts do not use the same words for the same thing. The document that opens a case is a petition in Illinois and a complaint in Vermont, and telling a Vermont filer to look for a petition is wrong information, not a stylistic difference.

The text section holds the strings this state says differently. Every key has an English default in efile_app/efile/utils/ui_text.py; anything you do not list keeps that default.

# efile_app/efile/static/config/states/vermont.yaml

text:
  terms:
    starting_document_example: "complaint"
  about:
    project_partner_description: >-
      LITEFile's Vermont e-filing integration was developed in close partnership
      with Legal Services Vermont (LSV), who collaborated on funding, building,
      and deploying LITEFile to expand accessible electronic court filing for
      self-represented litigants in Vermont.

How keys work​

  • Keys are nested in YAML and referred to elsewhere with dots: terms.starting_document_example.
  • Keys under terms are short nouns. Each one is also available to every longer string as a placeholder named for its last segment, so changing starting_document_example changes every sentence that names it.
  • Longer strings can also use {brand_name}, {state_name}, {state_code}, and {court_name}, which come from the jurisdiction and state sections of the same file.

What is not here​

Ordinary copy that no state wants to change stays in the templates. Only strings a state might genuinely reword belong in text, so the file stays readable and reviewable by the people who own the wording.

Check your keys

A misspelled key is ignored, which means the page quietly keeps the default wording — the exact wording you were trying to change. manage.py check reports any text key that does not exist (efile.W002), so run it after editing.

Translation​

Strings configured here are translatable along with the rest of the application. xgettext cannot read YAML, so manage.py extract_config_text restates them in a generated Python file that makemessages reads. Each string carries its key as the gettext message context, so one key's Illinois wording and Vermont wording stay separate messages for a translator. See efile_app/efile/locale/README.md for the full workflow.