Applying court rules to a matter

To calculate a matter's court dates, give the matter its court, then apply court rules: pick the rule set and the event that started the clock, check the dates Esqase calculates, and confirm. Esqase adds the dates to the matter's Court dates tab and, as you choose, to a member's calendar and to the matter's tasks.

The event that starts the clock is called the "trigger", for example the service of a complaint, the filing of a motion, or a hearing date. Every date Esqase calculates counts from a trigger.

Before you begin

• Court rules must be turned on for your firm, the court rules terms accepted, and the matter's court among the courts your firm follows. See Turning on court rules and following courts.
• Court rules can be applied only in a court from the Esqase catalogue that has at least one rule set your firm uses. In a custom court, add the dates by hand instead. See Working with court dates.
• Your role needs Create access for Court dates to give a matter its court and to apply court rules. Firm owners, administrators, attorneys and staff have it by default. See Roles and permissions.
• To put the dates on a calendar you also need Create access for Calendar, and to add tasks, Create access for Matter tasks. Without them, the matching switch is off and reads You do not have access to add calendar events. or You do not have access to add tasks.
• The Court dates tab sits after Events on the matter, for members whose role can view court dates. It does not appear on the small pre-engagement matter Esqase creates to invoice a lead, and an archived matter cannot take new court dates.

Give the matter its court

A matter has one court at a time, with its case details: the case number, case title, judge, department and the date the case was filed. The court, case number and judge also show in the matter's sidebar under Matter information, and the Search matters box on the Matters page finds a matter by its court or its case number.

In the new-matter wizard

When court rules are on for your firm and your role can add court dates, step 2 of the wizard, Matter information, ends with a Court section.

1. Choose the Court. The list holds the Courts your firm follows in Settings, Court rules. A new matter starts with your firm's default court; choose No court to leave it empty.
2. Once a court is chosen, fill in the Case number, Filed date, Judge and Department as you need.
3. Finish the wizard as usual. See Creating a matter.

When you edit a matter that already has court dates from court rules, the Court field is locked and reads This matter has court dates from its court. Change the court from the Court dates tab. The case details stay editable. The Court section never appears on the small pre-engagement matter Esqase creates to invoice a lead.

From the Court dates tab

1. Open the matter and click the Court dates tab.
2. When the matter has no court, the strip at the top reads No court yet: Add the court this matter is in to calculate its court dates. Click Add court.
3. In Add the court (Pick the court this matter is in and add its case details.), choose the Court from the courts your firm follows. If the list is empty, it reads Your firm follows no courts yet. Add them in Settings, Court rules.
4. Fill in the Case number, Filed date, Case title, Judge and Department as you need.
5. Click Add court. You will see Court added.

The strip then shows the court's name and its time zone (Court time zone), with the Case number, Case title, Judge, Department and Filed date.

To change the case details later, click Edit on the strip, make your changes in Edit court details, and click Save changes. You will see Court updated. While the matter has court dates from court rules, the court itself cannot be changed there: use Change court instead. See Working with court dates.

Apply court rules

The Apply court rules button sits at the top right of the Court dates tab. The dialog walks you through six steps, shown under its title as Step 1 of 6, and so on. Next moves to the following step and Back returns to the one before.

1. Click Apply court rules.

2. Court and rules (step 1). The matter's court and case number are shown at the top. In Court rules, choose the rule set to apply. Your firm's default rule set for the court is chosen for you, and the rule sets your firm turned on are listed first. The line below gives the version and the dates it is in effect, ending The version in effect on the trigger date is used. Below that is the disclaimer, which names the rule set, the version and the date Esqase last verified it.

3. Trigger (step 2). In What happened, choose the trigger. A short description of it appears when the rule set has one.

4. Trigger details (step 3). Enter the date of the trigger. Its label depends on the trigger, for example the date papers were served. Then fill in anything else the trigger asks for:

   • Time, for a trigger that has a time of day.
   • How the papers were served, when the service method changes the dates, and Where the papers were served from, when the rules count differently for service from another state or from abroad.
   • The hearing date, for dates that count back from a hearing.
   • Questions that are particular to the trigger, answered with a switch, a choice, a number or a date.
   • Label, for a trigger that can happen more than once: Added to every date from this trigger, for example Interrogatories set 2.

   Click Calculate dates.

5. Dates (step 4). Esqase lists every date the rules produce for these details. Choose the ones to add, as described under "Choose the dates to add" below, and click Next.

6. Calendar and reminders (step 5). Choose how the dates reach calendars and tasks. Everything starts from your firm's defaults.

   • Put court dates on the calendar: Each date becomes an all-day entry, marked as free time. Hearings and trials with a time are timed.
   • Whose calendar: the member whose default calendar the entries go on. It starts as the matter's responsible attorney or as you, depending on your firm's defaults.
   • Assignees: They are added as guests on the calendar entries and assigned to the tasks. It starts with the member in Whose calendar.
   • Add a task for every date: Dates whose rule asks for a task always get one.
   • Reminders: Used for every date whose rule has no reminders of its own. It starts with your firm's reminder ladder. Change the Days before, Add reminder, or remove a row.
   • Notes: an optional note for this application.

7. Confirm (step 6). Check the summary: the Court rules and their version, the Trigger and its date, and how many Dates, Calendar entries and Tasks will be created, with the disclaimer below. Click Add court dates. You will see Court dates added.

Choose the dates to add

On the Dates step, each date shows its title and citation, the calculated date (and time, when it has one), a one-line explanation of how it was worked out, its reminders (for example Reminders: 30 days, 14 days, 7 days, 1 day, on the day), and Show calculation, which opens the step-by-step working.

• Tick or untick each date to include it. Most dates start ticked; dates the rules treat as optional can start unticked. Dates from rules that do not apply to your answers are left out of the list.
• Pick one of these dates groups dates that are alternatives to each other. Choose one, or None of these.
• A date marked Enter by hand is not calculated. Its text reads Not calculated. Enter this date from the court's order. If you keep it ticked, enter the Date from the order, and a Time if it needs one.
• A date marked Check this date was calculated, but something about it needs a person to confirm it. The reason is shown under the date.
• Needs court permission marks a date whose rule says the step needs the court's permission.
• A note above the list may say The trigger date is not a court day. Dates are counted from the date you entered.

If you enter a date from an order after the list was calculated, click Recalculate to refresh the list, or click Next, which refreshes it for you.

The step stops you with a message when something needs fixing: Pick at least one court date to add., Enter a date for every date the court rules leave to you, or leave it out., or Some dates could not be calculated. Review the trigger details and try again. When the rules produce nothing for your answers, the list reads These rules give no dates for this trigger and these details.

The badges and the calculation are explained in How court date calculations work.

What Esqase creates

For each date you add, Esqase creates:

• A court date on the matter's Court dates tab, with its rule, its citation and its calculation.
• A calendar entry, when Put court dates on the calendar is on and the date's rule calls for one. It goes on the default calendar of the member in Whose calendar, with the assignees as guests. It is an all-day entry, marked as free time, in the court's time zone. A hearing or trial that has a time becomes a one-hour timed entry, marked as busy. The entry's title is the date's title, and its description gives the matter number, the case number and the rule the date comes from.
• A task, when Add a task for every date is on or the date's rule asks for one. The task is due on the court date (at the date's due time, or 5:00 PM court time when it has none), starts in the first stage of the matter's task board, and is assigned to the assignees.
• Reminders, from the date's rule or from the ladder you set in the dialog.

Esqase then notifies the matter's team that court dates were added, and, when the member in Whose calendar has connected Google Calendar or Outlook, copies the calendar entries there without inviting anyone. See Working with court dates.

Apply court rules again

You can apply court rules to a matter more than once: a second rule set of the same court (for example its local rules), or the same rule set for another trigger, such as a second set of papers served. On step 1, a rule set already on the matter shows These rules are already on this matter; this adds another trigger.

Each application is listed under Court rules on this matter on the Court dates tab, with its own dates. Give repeated triggers a Label so their dates are easy to tell apart.

When the dialog shows a message instead of the steps

The Apply court rules button is hidden in most of these situations, but if the dialog opens and something is missing, it shows one of these messages instead of the steps:

If the dates changed while the dialog was open

If someone else applies or recalculates the same rules on the matter, or Esqase updates them, while your dialog is open, clicking Add court dates shows These dates changed since you opened this. Review them again. and takes you back to the Dates step. Click Recalculate to see the current dates, check them, and continue as before.

Common questions

Why don't I see Apply court rules? It shows only when court rules are on for your firm, your role can create court dates, the matter is not archived, and the matter's court is a court from the Esqase catalogue. A matter with no court shows No court yet; for a matter in a custom court, use Add court date.

Why didn't a date get a calendar entry or a task? Check the switches on step 5, and whether your role can create calendar events and matter tasks. Some rules also leave a date off the calendar, or ask for a task only for certain dates.

The dialog says the matter has no task board. What now? The message is This matter has no task board yet. Turn off tasks or add a task stage first. Tasks go in the first stage of the matter's task board, so the board needs at least one stage. Add a stage to the matter's board. Turning off Add a task for every date is enough only when none of the dates' rules asks for a task. See Task kanban, stages, and types.

Can I change a date after I add it? Yes. Change it by hand, mark it completed, vacate it, or recalculate the trigger. See Working with court dates.

Related

• Turning on court rules and following courts
• Working with court dates
• How court date calculations work
• Court forms
• Creating a matter
• The matter workspace