How to Calculate Court-Rules Safely
The Risks
Calculating deadlines can be tedious and mundane on the one hand and complicated and confusing on the other. Experienced lawyers know deadline calculations need to be double-checked, maybe even triple-checked. Rules automation provides a way to help firms reduce the risk of missing deadlines by providing a cost-effective and efficient means of double-checking calculations.
Every deadline calculation involves several steps, whether using rules automation or not. You need to answer each of these questions for every calculation, and if wrong, the consequences can be serious.
What is the trigger?
What is the trigger date?
What deadline(s) do I need to calendar?
What are the calculations for each deadline?
In addition to these basic questions you also need to consider the following:
Do holidays or weekends have any effect on the calculation? Do I roll forwards or backward if I land on a weekend or holiday? What are the holidays in this court?
Does service of process have any effect on the calculation? Do I roll before adding service time, or do I add the service time to the calculation without rolling first?
The lawyer on the case is ultimately responsible for the accuracy of deadline calculations, and each one of these questions poses a risk of a simple mistake. These errors will not be excused because of software errors, secretary/paralegal mistakes, or any other reason.
Why Automate?
Make your calculations quicker and more accurate
The main benefit of using rules automation is that for a small per court cost, deadlines can be double-checked very quickly. But, you still have to know the rules to use the rules. Using rules automation is akin to wearing a seat belt while driving; it can save your hide, but you still need to know and follow the rules of the road.
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!
