At the beginning of each month updates to court rules are added into the system. If you have used a trigger that has been modified by court rules changes. You will see a Popup that notifies you that you have triggers on your calendar that may be impacted by the new rules changes. These changes are usually only going to apply to new deadlines calculated, but the Update screen will permit you to review all of the triggers you have where changes took place. One of three types of changes can occur.

• Delete. The change in the procedural rule eliminated the event and it should be deleted.
• Update. Some aspect of an event has been changed, usually the date calculation, and may require the current date to be updated.
• Add. A new event has been added and can be added to the events that have already been calculated.

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Be aware that our notification that rules affecting the events have changed does not necessarily mean that you will want to update all of the events, especially updates that change an existing deadline. For example, perhaps the affected date has been changed by stipulation or is irrelevant to the type of case. Or perhaps under the case law in your jurisdiction, the change is deemed not to apply to pending cases. Consequently, whether to apply an update will be your decision based upon your understanding of the applicable procedural and substantive law.

Controlling Update Notifications

You can disable automatic update notifications by changing the Check for Updates option from "Yes" to "No" on the General Options screen.  With automatic notification enabled, after the first of the month a screen, containing a Rules Update Notifications, will appear each time you open the DCO Add-In. To display a screen with the events that need to be updated, click on the Show Updates button on the Rules Update Notification screen.  Once you have processed and activated updates, you can prevent the notification from appearing by clicking "Do not remind me about this update".

With automatic notification disabled, you can view the Updates screen by clicking the update button on the right side of the Use Rules toolbar.

The Updates screen will be displayed, showing a list of events, grouped by the Trigger used to created them.

Reviewing and Updating Events

When you click the Show Updates button on the notification screen or the Updates button on the Use Rules toolbar, the Updates screen will appear. In the top half of the screen, you will see a list of the Triggers whose events have changed in the past month. 

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If you select a Trigger by clicking on it, a list of the events relating to the Trigger that have changed will appear in a list in the bottom half of the Updates screen.

Activating Updates

1. Select a Trigger from the list.

The list of events relating to the Trigger that are affected by the update will be displayed.  See Figure 1--Updates Screen.

2. Double-click on the applicable Trigger item (in the upper list).

An Outlook appointment record will open, showing the Trigger and a complete list of the events based upon the Trigger, including the events that have changed.

Note:  We recommend that you move the Outlook appointment record to the side of the Updates screen, so that you can see the original date for the event on the Updates screen and in the Outlook record at the same time.

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3. Click the Re-Calculate Events button in the listing in the appointment record.

• Updated. Any event with a status of "Updated" on Updates screen will show up with new date required by the changed procedural rule on the listing in the Outlook appointment.
• Added.  Any event  with a status of "Added" will appear in the listing with the date required by the procedural rules.
• Deleted.  Any event with a status of "Deleted" will be removed from the listing.

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By comparing the date and status of the original event on the Updates screen with the details of the event in the Outlook appointment record, you will be able to see the effect of the recalculation using the updated events.

4. Once you are satisfied with the result of the recalculation, click the Update Checked Events button.

The updated events will be either added, updated or deleted from the Outlook calendars on which they appeared originally.

5. When you are done updating the events, close the Outlook appointment record.

To see the updated date of an event in the Updates screen, click the refresh button at the top right of the Updates screen.

6. If you are not ready to finalized these changes, simply exit the Outlook record without clicking the Update Checked Events button.

By clicking the Updates button on the Use Rules toolbar, you will be able to activate the updates when you are ready.

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