legal-referral-intake-packet

name

legal-referral-intake-packet

description

Assemble a ready-to-send intake packet for an elder-law attorney, a legal-plan referral (MetLife Legal Plan, LegalShield), or the Area Agency on Aging's legal-services line. Reuses `*_Timeline.md`, `*_HotItems.md`, and `*_Findings.md` from the `/snf-review` pipeline. Tone is cooperative and attorney-facing — the audience is on the user's side. Produces a markdown packet (optionally .docx) whose first page is always a case-in-a-page summary, because attorneys triage on page one. Use when the user says "/legal-referral-intake-packet", "draft MetLife legal plan intake", "elder-law attorney intake", "AAA legal services referral", "assemble legal referral packet", or otherwise signals that it's time to hand the case over (or up) to a lawyer.

Legal Referral Intake Packet

Assemble the bundle handed to an attorney or legal-plan intake coordinator. This is the one skill in the plugin where the audience is on the user's side. The tone is cooperative, efficient, and oriented around making the attorney's first hour productive — not around winning a fight.

Attorneys triage intake on page one. The packet's first page is always a case-in-a-page summary that answers: who is this, what happened, what's the current posture, and what specifically does the client want the attorney to do. Everything after page one is evidence and supporting materials.

Inputs to collect

1. Recipient type — one of:

   • ELDER-LAW-ATTORNEY — an Ohio-licensed elder-law attorney (CELA or equivalent preferred).
   • LEGAL-PLAN — a pre-paid / insurance-based legal plan (MetLife Legal Plan, LegalShield, ARAG, etc.). Intake coordinators at these plans triage by specialty before assigning counsel.
   • AAA-LEGAL — the legal-services line operated through the Area Agency on Aging, typically contracted to a nonprofit legal aid organization for the region.

2. Recipient name and contact — where known. For LEGAL-PLAN, the plan name and intake phone or portal URL are sufficient at first intake.

3. Attorney-client privilege status — has the user already established a retainer or engagement with this recipient?

   • YES — the packet can be more detailed and can include frank strategy questions.
   • NO — the packet stays factual and non-privileged; include a short "This is a non-privileged intake packet" note on page one so the attorney knows the packet is shareable at intake.
   • LEGAL-PLAN-TRIAGE — the plan's intake coordinator is not counsel; the packet is pre-representation and should be framed accordingly.

4. Timeline urgency — how soon the user needs a response. Examples: "no appeal deadline in play," "Medicare appeal due [date]," "facility is threatening involuntary discharge on [date]." Urgency shapes whether the ask list is open-ended or tightly scoped.

5. Budget / plan constraints — if a legal plan is involved, the covered-hours cap, covered specialties, and any exclusions the user has been told. The packet's ask list should fit within the budget envelope.

6. Findings directory (optional, preferred) — path where <prefix>_HotItems.md, <prefix>_Findings.md, <prefix>_Timeline.md, <prefix>_Gaps.md live (the --out-dir from /snf-review). Timeline in particular drives the chronology section. Fail gracefully if absent; work from the user's narrative and note the absence.

7. Specific decisions requested — what does the POA want the attorney to do? Not "help" generically. Examples:

   • Opinion on ORC 1337 violation by the facility regarding the Medicaid application.
   • Representation in a state regulatory complaint to ODH or the Ohio AG Health Care Fraud Section.
   • Negotiation with the facility's corporate counsel on outstanding billing.
   • Drafting a demand letter on an unauthorized Medicaid filing.
   • Adult Protective Services report coordination and follow-through.
   • Review of the admission agreement and arbitration clause.
   • Representation at a state administrative hearing on a Medicaid determination.
   • Opinion on whether to open a guardianship proceeding as a contingency.

   If the user writes "help me figure out what to do," push for one or two concrete asks. Attorneys respond better to specific decisions requested than to open-ended help.

Preparation

1. Read (in order, where available):
   1. <findings-dir>/<prefix>_Timeline.md — source of the chronology, trimmed to legally salient events.
   2. <findings-dir>/<prefix>_HotItems.md — source of the load-bearing evidence pointers.
   3. <findings-dir>/<prefix>_Findings.md — for cross-referenced findings where a hot item has a companion.
   4. <findings-dir>/<prefix>_Gaps.md — so the packet can accurately report what isn't yet known.
2. Read references/packet_template.md in this skill's directory for the exact page-one structure and the pieces in the body.
3. Re-read ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/snf-records-review/RUBRIC.md for tag semantics.

Packet structure

Page 1  — Case-in-a-page summary (ALWAYS FIRST)
Page 2+ — Parties, counsel, and active case numbers
         — Chronology of legally salient events
         — Specific decisions requested
         — Documents-enclosed index
         — POA block and contact preferences

See references/packet_template.md for the full template.

Page-one discipline

Attorneys triage on page one. The page-one summary must:

• Fit on a single page when printed at normal margins.
• Open with the resident, the POA, the facility, the date range of concern, and the current posture in two sentences.
• Name the one-or-two specific decisions the POA is requesting from the attorney — front and center.
• List the parallel tracks in motion (Medicare appeal, Medicaid application, regulatory complaints, facility negotiations) in three-to-six bullet points so the attorney can see the landscape without flipping pages.
• Name the urgency — any deadline-driven decision the attorney needs to know about before reading further.
• Avoid chart quotes on page one. Quotes belong in the chronology and evidence sections.

Tone — cooperative, attorney-facing

• First-person from the POA. "I am writing to request the firm's assistance with …"
• Courteous, not deferential. The attorney is a professional peer on the resident's side; treat them as a collaborator. The POA is not asking permission and is not begging for help.
• Specific, not detailed. The page-one summary is short on purpose. Depth lives in the evidence sections, where the attorney can choose to go.
• No theatrics, no "finally someone who understands me." This is a packet, not a vent.
• Still no legal advice to the user. The packet is the user's position; frame as "the record appears to show," "the following evidence supports," and "I would like the firm's opinion on …" rather than claiming a legal conclusion.

Execution

1. Create the output directory. Default: <findings-dir>/legal-referral/ or the user's workspace root.
2. Output filenames:
   • Markdown — Legal_Referral_Packet_<RecipientShortName>_<YYYY-MM-DD>.md
   • Optional .docx — same stem, .docx extension, via the docx skill.
3. Show the draft to the user for approval, highlighting:
   • The specific decisions requested — double-check the user actually wants these asked.
   • Any [user: verify before submission] marker on Ohio-specific citations.
   • The urgency language and any deadlines referenced.
   • Whether the packet is marked privileged or non-privileged.
4. On approval, suggest an admin-interaction-log entry recording that the packet was prepared for the named recipient and the date.
5. If the user is going to send by email, offer to produce a short cover email summarizing the packet's purpose and the two or three decisions being requested.

Cross-skill fit

• snf-review produces the findings directory this skill consumes. Packets are materially stronger when /snf-review has been run first.
• state-agency-complaint and medicaid-caseworker-correspondence produce documents that belong in the documents-enclosed index when they've been sent. Name them, dated, with recipient.
• snf-appeal-supplement produces an appeal brief that is commonly the single most useful enclosure for an elder-law attorney assessing the Medicare coverage dispute. Name it in the enclosures.
• hipaa-records-request produces records-request correspondence that shows the POA's efforts to obtain records and the facility's response. Name any pending or unanswered requests — they may be the predicate for a demand letter the attorney is being asked to draft.

Guardrails

• Cooperative tone, not adversarial. This is the one skill where the audience is on the user's side. Do not carry over adversarial phrasing from state-agency-complaint or hipaa-records-request drafts.
• Still no legal advice. The packet asks the attorney's opinion; it does not state a legal conclusion. "The record appears to show a filing contrary to POA instruction; I would like the firm's opinion on whether this supports a claim under the state's power-of-attorney statute."
• No medical advice either. Do not characterize the resident's clinical condition, decision-making capacity, prognosis, or care needs. Quote the record and attribute the quote; let the attorney and any retained clinician interpret it. "The 06/14 nursing note records "resident unable to state the date or her location"" — not "the resident lacked capacity."
• Preserve citations verbatim. When quoting findings or hot items in the evidence section, pass them through unchanged.
• Ohio-specific citations flagged. Same [user: verify before submission] pattern. Attorneys will verify anyway — the marker is still helpful for the user's own prep.
• Privilege handling. If YES on attorney-client privilege, the packet can include strategy questions; mark the packet "Privileged and Confidential — Attorney Work Product Requested" on page one. If NO or LEGAL-PLAN-TRIAGE, omit the marking and keep content to non-privileged facts and asks.
• No PHI over-disclosure. Name and DOB are appropriate. SSN and insurance member IDs only if the recipient has asked for them. Legal-plan intake coordinators do not need PHI at triage stage.
• Budget realism. If the legal plan covers 4 hours per year, do not draft a packet whose ask list is a three-year representation. Scope the first engagement to what the plan covers and note follow-on asks separately.
• Anti-dump. Do not include the entire findings directory as enclosures. Select — attorney's time is not improved by receiving _Findings.md in full when _HotItems.md and the appeal supplement do the work.