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Caseworker workflow — case analysis to NGO referral, end to end

Audience. A caseworker at an NGO that has deployed DueCare per docs/scenarios/ngo-office-deployment.md. This doc walks through one complete case from first contact to handoff — the day-to-day rhythm of using the system.

Scenario

A worker walks into your NGO's office. She's escaped a domestic-work placement in Hong Kong and arrived back in the Philippines two weeks ago. She has a phone with photos of her contract, her receipts for agency fees, and a few WhatsApp screenshots from her former recruiter. She wants to know: is she owed money? Does she have a case? Where does she go next?

You have ~45 minutes for this intake.

Step 1 — Greet + create a case (3 min)

In the office, you're sitting at the front-desk Mac mini that runs DueCare. Open http://duecare.local in the browser.

  1. Journal tab → Add entry (the + button).
  2. Set kind to NOTE; title: "Initial intake — Worker A — 2026-05-02"; body: "First meeting, post-return. PH-HK domestic-work placement. Has photo evidence. Walking through guided intake next."
  3. Save.

The entry appears in the Journal tab. The worker's real name is nowhere — you used "Worker A". This matters because: - Caseworker notes can be subpoenaed - Multiple caseworkers may eventually open this case - The Reports tab will produce a shareable doc — you don't want that doc to leak the worker's identity if you forward it

Step 2 — Run the guided intake (8 min)

Above the journal, click Quick guided intake.

The wizard walks through 10 questions. For each, ask the worker in plain language and type her answer:

  1. Recruiter name — "Pacific Coast Manpower Inc., contact person Maria. Originally introduced by my cousin's friend."
  2. Recruiter license — "She showed me a POEA license number when I asked: POEA-1234-5678. I don't know if it was real."
  3. Fees paid — "PHP 50,000 'training fee' before they would release my visa. PHP 10,000 medical. Both via BPI bank transfer to the agency's account."
  4. Loan terms — "I borrowed PHP 80,000 from a lender Maria introduced me to. 5% per month interest. Monthly payments deducted from my salary in Hong Kong."
  5. Contract signed — "Yes, signed in English. Contract said HKD 4,870/month, 1 day off per week."
  6. Wage promise — "What was promised matched the contract on paper. In practice I got HKD 3,500 because of the loan deduction."
  7. Passport status — "My employer in Hong Kong took it 'for safekeeping'. I never had it back until I returned."
  8. Destination address — "Mr. and Mrs. Wong, Causeway Bay. I never saw a written address before arrival."
  9. Communication restrictions — "I could call home Sundays only. The employer kept my SIM card during the week."
  10. Threats — "Maria warned me before I left that if I quit my employer, she would 'tell the agency to blacklist me' and I'd never work overseas again."

The wizard creates 10 journal entries (one per non-empty answer). Each entry runs through the auto-risk-tagger.

Step 3 — Review the Reports tab (5 min)

Click Reports.

Top of the tab — Case overview: - Entries: 11 (the 10 from the wizard + your initial NOTE) - Fee lines: ≥ 3 (the wizard's free-text answers extracted + any structured ones you'll add next) - Risk flags: depending on which patterns matched, ~6-8 - Critical risks: likely 3-4 (passport withholding, fee camouflage, debt bondage, threat)

ILO indicator coverage — the wizard's answers should fire: - #1 Physical & sexual violence — typically not (no answer claimed it) - #2 Intimidation & threats — fires (Maria's blacklist threat) - #4 Debt bondage — fires (loan + salary deduction) - #6 Isolation — fires (SIM card kept) - #8 Retention of identity documents — fires (passport-for-safekeeping) - #9 Deception — fires (zero-fee corridor; PHP 60k charged anyway)

Detailed risk findings — each fired rule shows: - The matched phrase from the entry - The ILO indicator number - The controlling statute (e.g., POEA Memo Circular 14-2017 §3) - A recommended next step

Take a screenshot or copy these citations. They're gold for the referral packet.

Step 4 — Add structured fee payments (5 min)

The wizard captured fees as free text; the regex extractor catches most of them. For higher-quality data, add structured fees:

In Reports → Add fee payment:

Field Value
Recipient name Pacific Coast Manpower Inc.
Recipient type RECRUITMENT_AGENCY
Amount 50000
Currency PHP
Purpose label training fee
Recipient's wording "Pre-departure orientation training, mandatory per agency policy"
Payment method BANK_TRANSFER
Worker's notes "Paid 2026-04-19 via BPI; receipt screenshot in worker's phone"

Save. The fee runs through the StructuredFeeAssessor: - Looks up corridor PH-HK → zero-fee policy under POEA MC 14-2017 - Flags the fee as ILLEGAL with the controlling statute attached - Adds an ILLEGAL LegalAssessment row

Repeat for the PHP 10,000 medical and (if you choose) the PHP 80,000 loan.

Step 5 — Start a refund claim (3 min)

Below the Fee table, every illegal fee row now shows a "Start refund claim" button.

Click it for the PHP 50,000 training fee. The system: - Creates a draft RefundClaim row - Pre-fills a cover letter naming Pacific Coast Manpower, the amount, the controlling POEA MC + ILO C181 citation, the worker's payment method, the request for refund + investigation - Generates a delivery message ready for the OS share sheet

Edit the cover letter inline if needed (add the worker's preferred contact channel; remove anything you don't want forwarded).

Repeat for any other illegal fees. The Refund claims section now shows N drafts.

Step 6 — Generate the NGO intake document (2 min)

In Reports, scroll down to Generate intake document.

Click. The system produces a single markdown document combining:

  • Worker context — corridor (PH-HK), current stage (EXIT), entry count, date range
  • ILO C029 indicator coverage — table of which indicators fired, how many times each
  • Detailed risk findings — every flagged GREP rule with statute
  • reasoning + next step
  • Fee table — every fee paid, with legality flag, with totals by currency, with illegal-totals separately
  • Chronological timeline — every event grouped by stage of journey
  • Recommended NGO + regulator contacts — for the PH-HK corridor: POEA Anti-Illegal Recruitment Branch, Mission for Migrant Workers HK, PathFinders HK, HELP for Domestic Workers + their phone numbers + URLs

Tap Share. Pick the destination (email to a partner NGO; Signal to the worker's lawyer; print to PDF; save to a USB drive).

The document is markdown so it renders cleanly in any messenger, email, or PDF generator.

Step 7 — Hand off + book follow-up (5 min)

The intake document is the deliverable. Hand the worker (a printed copy if she wants) and:

  • Email a copy to your partner NGO that handles refund-claim filing with POEA
  • Email a copy to your standing-counsel lawyer for review
  • Book the worker's follow-up appointment in two weeks to track:
  • Has she filed the refund claim
  • Has the lender (the loan is independently illegal under HK Cap. 163 §24 if the APR > 60% — ask the worker for the loan paperwork at the next visit)
  • Does she need shelter referral, medical referral, mental-health referral

Step 8 — Close the loop in the Journal (5 min)

Back in the Journal tab: - Add a NOTE: "Intake complete 2026-05-02. Generated NGO intake doc. Forwarded to Polaris-PH and Atty. Reyes. Follow-up booked 2026-05-16." - Add a NOTE for each handoff: "Forwarded to Polaris-PH at intake@ polaris-pilipinas.org" / "Forwarded to Atty. Reyes at her firm email"

This becomes the audit trail for what your office actually did.

Step 9 — At the end of the day

# On the Mac mini terminal
make doctor   # confirm everything healthy after a day of use

Backups run automatically overnight per the cron job from docs/scenarios/ngo-office-deployment.md.

Total time budget for this case

Step Time
1. Greet + create a case 3 min
2. Guided intake 8 min
3. Review Reports tab 5 min
4. Add structured fees 5 min
5. Start refund claims 3 min
6. Generate intake document 2 min
7. Hand off + book follow-up 5 min
8. Close the loop 5 min
Total 36 min

vs the same intake without DueCare: - Looking up POEA MC 14-2017 manually + cross-referencing ILO conventions — 30 min - Drafting a referral packet from scratch in Word — 60 min - Researching corridor-specific NGO contacts — 15 min - Writing the cover letter for the refund claim — 20 min

Savings: ~2 hours per intake. With 5 intakes a day across the office, that's a caseworker FTE recovered for direct service.

When to deviate from this workflow

  • Worker in active danger — skip the wizard. Use the chat surface to look up the destination-country emergency hotline, hand the worker the number, then circle back to the structured intake later.
  • Mass-arrival scenario (e.g., a returning batch of OFWs) — use the API (POST /api/chat) from a script to bulk-pre-populate cases, then have caseworkers triage the auto-tagged risks.
  • Worker doesn't speak English — chat surface accepts any language but the GREP rules + intake wizard text are English only. Localization of the worker-facing surface is on the v0.8 roadmap.