Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia — Rules as Code for divorce eligibility

Overview

Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia’s challenge

Divorce eligibility rules can be quite complex. People interested in applying for a divorce need to navigate through many pages of content before starting an application. This can make the process time consuming and confusing.

Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia’s transformation

Salsa worked with the team at the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia to create a Rules as Code proof of concept (PoC) for divorce eligibility. Users are taken through a series of questions and then told if they’re eligible for a divorce. In addition, they’re given tailored information about what documentation they need in their specific situation.

The outcomes

• Successful Rules as Code PoC for the Court to experiment with Rules as Code
• Improved user journey
• Court team upskilled in Rules as Code

“The RaC project with Salsa Digital and GovCMS was an amazingly smooth and easy project, especially for something that is quite a technical process for users. Salsa has such an amazing ability to draw out the information that is needed, and guide the SMEs in structuring it in a way that works well for RaC.”

Christine Tuff
Webmaster, Corporate Services, Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia

Detailed case study

The Court’s challenge — content-heavy user journey

If someone wants to get a divorce in Australia, they need to read through several pages of detailed content on the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia’s website. As part of the GovCMS Rules as Code trial, the Court wanted to explore if Rules as Code could be used for divorce eligibility. The goal was to improve the user journey by providing a short webform and then customised content that reflects people’s individual circumstances.

The Court’s transformation — a customised Rules as Code solution

The GovCMS RaC sandpits follow a standardised structure and sprints. The work is broken into the following stages:

• Discovery (rules analysis and logic mapping)
• OpenFisca build
• Drupal build
• QA
• Showcase and user acceptance testing (UAT)

Rules analysis

During our discovery, we worked with subject matter experts to cover all elements of eligibility. Using a Miro board, we started with rules statements, which are plain English statements that express the rules. Below is a screenshot of the rules statements for divorce eligibility.

For the PoC, we covered eligibility rules from the law as well as some more ‘common sense’ checks (e.g. that they’re currently married and their spouse hasn’t already applied for an annulment or divorce).

The next step was to create the logic mapping. For eligibility logic, this generally starts with ‘Eligible=TRUE if…’ followed by a series of AND/OR statements.

The screenshot below shows the eligibility logic in Miro for divorce.

Our final process in the rules analysis was to create a spreadsheet that could be used by both the OpenFisca and Drupal developers. The spreadsheet included the text for the webform questions, the corresponding OpenFisca variables, as well as help text and user journey pathways. The screenshot below shows part of the spreadsheet for divorce eligibility.

We also used the spreadsheet to build out our test cases. The screenshot below shows some of the test cases for the divorce eligibility PoC.

OpenFisca and Drupal build

With the logic mapped and verified by the Court’s subject matter experts, we moved on to the build phase of the project.

The OpenFisca build creates the following using Python code:

• Input variables: All input variables along with their attributes.
• Formula variables: Formula variables, their attributes and any calculation logic.
• Parameters: All numerical parameters used in the formulas.
• Testing scenarios: Coding the test cases from the scenarios on the sheet.

Once the OpenFisca build was done, we created the Drupal website using Launchpad and CivicTheme for a quick spin-up solution. The webform was created in Drupal and linked to the OpenFisca API using the Webform OpenFisca module.

This Rules as Code PoC also included blocks for use on the results page, depending on the information the user submitted. For example, we had three different blocks for proof of marriage documentation for the following three scenarios:

1. Marriage certificate in English
2. Marriage certificate in a language other than English
3. No marriage certificate and it wasn’t possible to get one

Likewise, we had custom content blocks if people had been married for less than 2 years before separating and/or if they were separated but living under the same roof. These blocks provide tailored content on the documentation requirements in these situations.

The outcomes — an improved user journey and RaC validation

The GovCMS Rules as Code Sandpit Program was designed to let government agencies experiment with Rules as Code and test different use cases. In the case of the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia, the use case was centred around divorce eligibility. Importantly, another key criteria of the GovCMS RaC Program is to take agencies on the RaC journey and give them opportunities to upskill in this emerging space.

The Court’s Rules as Code divorce eligibility checker let the Court team find out more about all aspects of RaC —from the rules analysis to OpenFisca coding and webform build.

• A production rollout of the divorce eligibility checker would provide the following benefits to the Court:
• A clear way to communicate divorce requirements to website users
• An expected decrease in inquiries, which will save Court workers time
• Smoother and faster divorce application processing for Court workers because it’s more likely the correct documentation will be submitted

A production rollout of the divorce eligibility checker would provide the following benefits to people who want a divorce:

• An easier and more accessible user journey
• Tailored information regarding their personal documentation requirements
• A faster and more streamlined application process, with a better understanding of what they’ll need to supply to the Court

About the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia

The Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia comprises two separate courts. FCFCOA (Division 1) is a specialist family law court (previously known as the Family Court of Australia). FCFCOA (Division 2) (previously known as the Federal Circuit Court) has broader federal jurisdiction across family law, migration, fair work, bankruptcy, intellectual property, consumer law, human rights and administrative law. FCFCOA (Division 2) shares these jurisdictions with the FCFCOA (Division 1) (in respect of family law and child support) and the Federal Court of Australia (in respect of migration and general federal law).