这个故事最初出现在 Res国际公共部门会计标准局, 密苏里大学堪萨斯分校法学院校友杂志. 要了解更多信息， 阅读全文 或浏览 法学院网站.

在COVID-19改变一切之前, Kansas court officials knew they needed to change how victims of domestic abuse and sexual assault applied for court-ordered protection in the state.

约翰逊县地方法院法官凯文.P. O’Grady says the process of seeking an Order of Protection in Kansas was time consuming. 在法官考虑请求之前, vulnerable applicants had to wade through pages of legalese-filled paperwork and file it in person with a county clerk.

“这是一个相当长的过程，”奥格雷迪说. “It was not uncommon for people to need two, three, four hours.”

But when a worldwide pandemic shut down courthouses across the state last spring, 亲自申请不再是一种选择. Making updates to the Order of Protection system moved from necessary to imperative on the state judiciary’s priority list.

合作保护堪萨斯人

O’Grady had already been in discussions with the UMKC 法学院 about using technology to make the process easier. Once courthouses closed down, the project moved to a fast track.

“We were really worried about victims of domestic violence having access,” says O’Grady.

使用联邦COVID-19拨款资金, the Kansas court system contracted with the Law School to develop an online filing system. Instead of having applicants print out forms and deliver them in person, the state wanted to allow victims to seek help through a computer or smartphone. And, perhaps most importantly, the entire process needed to be easy to understand.

结果, 将于2月底在全州推广, 是堪萨斯保护令的入口吗, 或KS POP. It is already up and running in Johnson, Riley and Harvey counties.

“Now people don’t even need to go to a clerk” to file a petition, Staci Pratt说, 他是利昂. 布洛赫法律图书馆 and oversees the school’s self-help clinic. “I think that’s fundamental to creating equal access to justice before the law.”

用通俗易懂的语言, the KS POP explains exactly who is eligible for a protection order and what it takes to apply. The site also gives information about locally available advocates who can support a victim through the process.

If victims decide to move forward, KS POP takes them through a simple, guided interview. 他们回答问题, 门户使用该信息填充表单, which is then submitted to the proper county court jurisdiction.

去年秋天, as a small team at the Law School went to work on designing the portal, it quickly became clear that creating the computer platform to support the system wasn’t the hard part, Ayyoub Ajmi说, associate director and digital communication and learning initiatives librarian at the Leon E. 布洛赫法律图书馆.

“这不是技术问题，”他说. “这确实是一个法律问题和程序问题.”

除此之外, the Law School had to convince different jurisdictions to accept the common form that the portal generates based on interview questions. The portal also needed to identify a victim’s individual circumstances, 这可能需要不同的信息.

安德鲁·沃茨.D. ’20), a recent UMKC Law graduate who worked on the project for three months as a Truman Fellow, says it was important to understand exactly what information jurisdictions needed to move ahead with a petition, 同时也要把问题问得尽可能清楚.

“One of the goals was to simplify the process completely,” he says.

到目前为止, that effort to simplify things has greatly reduced the amount of time required to file a petition, 从这个过程中节省了几个小时. What may have taken an entire day could now be completed in less than an hour, Ajmi says.

把安全放在首位

让这个过程更简单是一个目标, portal designers also knew they needed to take great care to make sure that vulnerable victims using the portal remained safe. 出于这个原因, the site features a single button that a victim can touch to immediately exit the portal if they fear being detected by their abuser. 一路走来的每一步, the KS POP provides users with information about local advocates available to help them on the ground in their community.

玛丽莲竖琴, 堪萨斯法律服务公司的执行董事, 他说掌握这些信息至关重要, since most victims benefit from having an advocate at their side to navigate legal and safety consequences that will arise with going to court.

The convenience the portal affords is good news for Kansans facing domestic or sexual abuse, 竖琴说. But survivors should know that getting an advocate’s assistance is still an important part of the process.

Often the most dangerous time for a survivor is when they leave their abuser, 竖琴说. Having an advocate who can help think through consequences and safety procedures can be critical. Harp thanked the UMKC team for clearly conveying that message through the portal.

“They were sensitive to make this not only a user-friendly process, but also a survivor-friendly process that recognizes all the aspects of safety for the survivors,她说。.