Creating a Legal Question

Legal questions can potentially “stand alone” or be part of a larger FAQ within a specific DIY Legal Solution packet or attached to a specific legal option.

Note

Due to changes in approach, use the New Accepted Answer section and not the Old Accepted Answer, Old Jurisdiction, and Old Negate Jurisdiction fields.

Add Question and Description

• Add the Question title. The title should be drafted as a question.

• Add a content description. This is the description that will be used if the question is displayed independently on our website.

• Add a meta description. This is the description that will be used in social media, search indexes, and in any API. This should be limited to 300 characters.

See :ref:cms_style_guide

Categorize the legal problem

• Tag the legal problem to one or more navigational IA tags. This is used to manage the drill down.

• Tag the legal problem to one or more legal issues. This is used to associate with Get Legal Help tools.

• Select the primary legal category. This is used to keep the information organized when it is tagged to multiple primary categories (for example, we may tag a criminal records issue to Business & Work and Crime & Traffic).

• Tag the position of the question (neutral, plaintiff/petitioner/client, defendant/respondent/agency)

• Select the primary level 2 navigation term. This is used to help with breadcrumbs, reporting, and Guided Navigation. This single term comes from the navigational IA taxonomy.

• Optionally add a disambiguation tag to distinguish between similar questions. For example, What is the fee to file? may be a question for bankruptcy cases, small claims, and name changes but the answer varies depending on the case type.

Note

The primary level 2 navigation category may be used to generate related questions when the content team has not selected related questions.

Draft the answer or answers

The accepted answer uses the Structured Text & Lists block.

Warning

Use the New Accepted Answer field

A question can have more than one answer. Each answer can be jurisdictionally limited and will be presented that way. For example, the question “How do I e-file my documents?” may have answers for Chicago, Cook County (but not Chicago), Kane County, Lake County, McHenry County, and Illinois (except for Cook, Kane, Lake, and McHenry counties).

For each answer:

• Draft the answer in structured text

• Tag it to the jurisdiction

• If there are multiple answers, use the negate jurisdiction to make each answer exclusive

• If there is only one statewide answer, remove the negate jurisdiction component

Tag related content

By default, the system will:

• Create backlinks to DIY Legal Solutions the question is associated with

• Create backlinks to Guides/Basics the question is associated with

In addition, the content team can:

• Tag specific other questions to this question; if not questions are added, the system will use related questions from the DIY Legal Solution, if available, or those questions in the same primary level 2 category.

• Tag related resources. This should be other legal content that is not:

  • A DIY Legal Solution

  • Legal Option

  • Legal Question

  • Legal content of type “Guide”

• Add any applicable citations

Add Content Management Metadata

• Add an image for social media

• Tag to annual updates, if applicable

• Add the name of the author or subject matter expert, if known

• Add any editorial notes

• Add any content management tags

• Provide any translation information:

  • Request translation to be created,

  • Mark translation as outdated,

  • Translation type

  • Translation status

• Update Last full review by a SME, if required, per our content policy

• Update last revised by staff, if required, per our content policy