Matter Dashboard - Key Dates

The “Key Dates” tab is an optional section which will display only if either of the following conditions are met:  

• At least one active “Key Date” is defined in the matter template that is used for the matter.
• Court Rule module is activated. 

Matter Triggers

Matter Triggers or Key Dates are defined in the matter templates. These are dates that occur only once in the life of the matter (e.g., Engagement Date). Using the matter template, the administrator can define actionable tasks that are triggered when the matter trigger (or key date) is defined or modified. 

Matter Triggers mainly generate “Tasks”; however, tasks can have corresponding calendar items to push an appointment to Outlook.

Scheduled Triggers

Scheduled Trigger is a legal activity(e.g. Examination) that may happen once or repeat multiple times during the life cycle of a legal case. Once a scheduled trigger is initiated, a series of related Tasks or Events is triggered based on the scheduled trigger date(e.g. examination date):

• The user can create unlimited Court Rule Triggers.
• Navigate to key dates tab and find the Scheduled Trigger, open a popup with the list of available Scheduled Triggers that are in "Active Status"
• Users should select one of the available Scheduled Triggers, type the Trigger Name,(e.g. Partial, Settlement) and define the date and possible Time and press create button.
• The dates and related information to the trigger can be customized.

Court Rule Triggers

MatterAlert can be integrated to a third-party API called “Calendaring Rules” (or Court Rules). If the Court Rule module is activated, the user will see the “Court Rule Triggers” section under the “Key Dates” tab. Features involved with integration to Court Rules are as follows:

• The user can create unlimited Court Rule Triggers.
• The court rule trigger list will display a list of triggers as well as the number of appointments per trigger.
• The court rule triggers only create appointments/events and not tasks.

Creating Events using Court Rule

The user can add court rule triggers in two ways: 

• From the matter calendar by clicking on the “New Court Event” button.
• From the key dates à court rule trigger section.

To create a new court rule trigger, the user needs to provide the following: 

• Name: This is the trigger name set by the user to make the trigger recognizable. 
• Jurisdiction: By default, sets to matter jurisdiction. 
• Limitation/Trigger: Based on the selected jurisdiction, a set of triggers are available (e.g., Trial). 
• Trigger Date: This is the date and time the trigger is happening (e.g., Trial date).
• Service Type: Some triggers require service types. If a trigger does not need a service type, the dropdown will be disabled.

Once the user has defined the above information and clicked on “Calculate,” MatterAlert communicates with the Court Rule API and pulls all possible events based on the defined trigger and calculates all dates. It will then display a chronological list of events with the calculated date. 

• This is a preview of events and at this point no events have been added to MatterAlert. 
• Clicking on the  icon will display a pop-up screen with the actual court rule related to that event.
• Some events might have dependent events – this will display as a hierarchical list.
• The user can select/unselect all items by clicking the checkbox at top of the list. 

To import events the user can:

1.  Select any number of items from the list.
2.  Click on the “Import Selected Items” button.
3. A pop-up screen will display that allows the user to:
   • Select Attendees. The user can add/remove attendees based on the list of users who have access to the matter dashboard.
   • (Optional) Define one or more Tags (the “Court Rule” tag will be added automatically).
   • (Optional) Add any “text” which will be appended to the event name to recognize the events. 
   • (Optional) The user can generate one calendar event as a “reminder” for each court rule event. Additional reminders can be added after events are imported (via matter calendar)
   • (Optional) Select a color for the events. 

Modifying Court Rule Events

Events and appointments created by Court Rule are regular events and can be changed by the matter team within the Matter calendar. If the Event date changes (e.g., Trial Date), the following steps will allow the user to change all related event dates: 

• Navigate to the Key Dates tab and find the trigger date from the list of pre-created court rule triggers. 
• On the edit page, the user can set the new date and click on the “Change & Recalculate” button.
• The system will calculate all new due dates and display it under “Court Rule Date” in red font. 
• To change the date, select appointments from the list and click on the “Sync to Court Dates” button.

Modify Date for a Subset of Events 

If events created by court rule have child events and the parent event date is changed, all related event dates will be changed accordingly.