How GHNY Law turns a client's intake email into a filled NYS human rights complaint in under 2 minutes
GHNY Law (Glass & Hogrogian LLP) files employment discrimination complaints with the New York State Division of Human Rights, more than 50 a year. Its clients answer an intake questionnaire in Cognito Forms, and staff used to copy those answers into the Division's Employment Complaint Form by hand, at 30–60 minutes a form. Since April 2025 the intake email goes to Instafill.ai, and the filled complaint comes back in under 2 minutes.
At a glance
- Company GHNY Law (Glass & Hogrogian LLP)
- Industry Legal services
- Form NYS Division of Human Rights Employment Complaint Form
- Volume 50+ complaint forms a year
- Intake Cognito Forms, forwarded by email
-
Results
Under 2 min per complaint form, down from 30–60 minutes
50+ forms filled from one CSV in a busy period
Under 5 min to set up, with no developer - Catalog forms NYS DHR Employment Complaint Form
- Form categories Discrimination forms, New York State forms
The challenge
The Employment Complaint Form is a multi-page legal form: the complainant's and the respondent's details, the protected classes the discrimination was based on, dates of incidents and employment history, long narrative descriptions and a legally binding declaration.
Clients answer in their own words, so a submission is unstructured text rather than the form's boxes. A sentence such as "I was denied promotions due to my disability" has to become the right checkbox, dates arrive in any format, and every narrative has to be carried across in full. Each complaint was a half hour to an hour of copying and checking.
The solution
Nothing changed for GHNY Law's clients. They still submit through Cognito Forms, and Cognito still sends each submission to the firm's inbox. One forwarding rule now passes those emails on to a dedicated Instafill.ai address, which took less than five minutes to set up and needed no developer.
Instafill.ai reads the email and any form data attached to it through filling from documents: it interprets the free-text answers, ticks the matching discrimination checkboxes and standardizes date ranges. The form was fine-tuned on GHNY Law's intake format and on the structure of the complaint form, so loosely written answers land in the fields the Division expects. Missing or inconsistent answers are flagged in a summary for the team to review.
Within 1–2 minutes Instafill.ai replies to the original email with the completed complaint attached, a cover page listing any flagged inputs and a backup download link.
The firm chose email over a direct Cognito Forms webhook, which Instafill.ai also supports, because its paralegals already watched that inbox. Any team member can also email a client's application, attachments included, to the same address for a one-off case, and the setup works with any form provider, should the firm move from Cognito to JotForm or another platform.
In busy periods, the team uploads one CSV with dozens of submissions and batch filling completes more than 50 forms in one run. Returning clients' details, such as employer names and contact details, are kept in reusable profiles and filled again from there.
The results
| By hand | With Instafill.ai | |
|---|---|---|
| One complaint form | 30–60 minutes | Under 2 minutes |
| 50+ forms in a busy period | An entire day | Under an hour |
| Getting the data in | Retyped from each submission | Forwarded email, or one CSV |
Manual data entry has all but disappeared from GHNY Law's intake. Staff spend the time on casework instead of paperwork, and the firm has taken on more intake without hiring more staff.
