Read a probate docket without a lawyer
Lesson 3 of 6 · Find the owner nobody can find
1 · Learn the move · Cognitive verifier
You can read a docket before you pay anyone to. What you cannot do is conclude from it, and neither can the model. A docket is a list of entry titles and dates, and the titles mislead: 'Letters issued' does not say what kind or with what limits, 'Order' does not say what was ordered, and silence for four years does not mean the case closed. The cognitive verifier move breaks the one question you care about - can anyone sell this land - into sub-questions a docket line can actually answer, answers each by quoting the line, and marks every place where only the filed document itself would tell you. The result is not an answer. It is the list you bring to the attorney and the title company, so the paid hour starts in the right place.
Do not tell me who can sell this land. Break that question into sub-questions a docket entry could answer: was a case opened, will or no will, who was appointed, what was issued, any limit on selling real property, is it closed. Answer each by quoting the entry. Where only the filed document would say, write [NEEDS: copy of that filing].
2 · Your turn. You write the prompt
The owner of record on parcel 17-0442-010 in Harrow County is Marjorie L. Tallent, and you found her estate case. The clerk's printout is one page of entries, the last one from 2021, and a man named Dennis Tallent says he is 'the administrator and can sign.' Write the prompt that reads the docket into questions for counsel instead of into a yes.
Write the prompt for this scenario as given, or swap in a real one from your own work. The score works the same either way.
Remember: the AI sees only your prompt, not this page. If the situation isn't in your prompt, it doesn't exist.
Optional. These shape the output when you run your prompt below, not your score.