Deadline Rules

A deadline rule encodes a court deadline once (“answer due 21 days after service, business days, roll forward”) so Outlaw can calculate the actual date on every case instead of someone counting on a calendar. Rules are assigned to courts; when a case is associated with a court, that court’s rules are the ones offered (see Events & Deadlines for how deadlines appear on a case). A rule can instead be marked a Common Rule, which applies to every court.

What Starts the Clock

Each rule has a trigger:

• Case Created: a new case of the type starts the clock.
• Stage Entered: the case reaching a specific stage starts it.
• Custom Date: a date you enter on the case starts it; the rule defines the Date Label the case shows for it (e.g. “Service Date”).
• Rule Completed: another deadline being completed starts it. This is how you chain deadlines into sequences.

With Auto-fire on, the deadline is created automatically the moment its trigger occurs; off, you create it manually when you need it.

How the Date Is Calculated

• Offset (days): how many days from the trigger the deadline falls. Positive counts forward, negative counts backward (for “X days before hearing” deadlines).
• Day Type: calendar days, or business days that skip weekends and the firm’s holidays.
• Date Counting: whether the trigger date itself counts as day 1, or counting starts the day after.
• Weekend/Holiday Rollover: if the calculated date lands on a weekend or holiday, roll forward to the next business day, backward to the previous one, or to a specific weekday.
• Extension Days: extra days added for the method of service (the classic +5 for service by mail), counted in calendar or business days.

A Rule Reference field records the court rule the deadline comes from (e.g. FRCP 12(a)(1)), for your reference; it doesn’t affect the calculation.

Managing Rules

The list shows each rule’s trigger, offset, and how many courts it’s assigned to. A rule that’s in use on cases can’t be deleted. Rules are also offered by case type: a case type can carry its own set of date-triggered rules, counted on the Case Types page.