Does 30 + 3 always equal 33?
In the world of court rules...sometimes it does, and sometimes it does not...
30 + 3 is not always 33, at least not in the world of legal calendaring. In our world, sometimes it is, and sometimes it isn’t; it depends. Being wrong about whether it's 33 or not can have serious consequences, ranging from embarrassing phone calls to strategic disadvantage and, in some cases, even legal malpractice.
When we say “it depends,” we mean it depends on the rules. Here’s a fairly typical exchange between a CalendarRules rules expert and a client. A client will email and say something like, “I just entered the trigger Interrogatories Served on January 26, and the system is telling me the answers are due on March 2nd, which is wrong. I know the rule is plus 33 days, which is 30 days to answer plus 3 days because it was served by mail, so the correct due date must be February 28; that’s 33 days from January 26. I’ve counted it five times; please get this fixed ASAP!” A rules expert will write back and say something like, “I’m very sorry for the inconvenience or confusion. Could you tell us what court you’re in so we can try to duplicate the issue?” The rules expert then learns it is a federal court, and the client should not be counting 33 days; the client should be counting 30 days, rolling if landing on a weekend or holiday, and then adding the three days. That explains the discrepancy. It's a mostly obvious rule to anyone that does docketing, but we see people mix it up frequently.
About us...
DocketCalendar is a calendaring solution for law firms of any size who need rules-based deadlines on their Outlook or Google calendar. We partner with CalendarRules, giving you access to the best rules-based deadlines and rules experts in the business. DocketCalendar allows you to access CalendarRules deadlines and support from the CalendarRules rules experts themselves; all inside the Outlook or Google calendar your firm already uses!
