I understand now how to programatically open and close the panel, thank you.
I am still having an issue with the form though. The check box does not hold the post value if their is an error. Also the boxes start out checked and I can not get them to start unchecked. I did not modify anything on the form and is built straight from CSS form builder. So, I do not understand what I am doing wrong. I have attached the file for you to look at