By Larry A. Crapo
According to an American Bar Association survey, the number one cause of legal malpractice actions filed against attorneys is calendar/deadline related errors. (See, "Profile of Malpractice Claims" (for the period 1996-99), Nosbisch, Jane, American Bar Association.)
For 1999, the most current data available, calendaring errors break down as:
* failure to calendar — 7.03 percent;
* failure to react to calendar — 1.27 percent;
* failure to know/ascertain calendar — 15.24 percent.
The total, 23.54 percent, means that almost one in every four claims is related to "not knowing or properly responding to" the statutorily required court rules calendar.
Clearly, tracking calendar-related court rules is crucial to attorneys for every jurisdiction and special court in which they practice. Attorneys must keep a detailed calendar of dates for all appearances and deadlines for all filings, which can become extremely complex and subject to change at any moment.
Traditionally, attorneys have penciled in dates and times in a "little black book" they carry around. Thousands of lawyers rely on this system, and the data is usually based on a secretary, paralegal or administrator tracking the dates.
However, the more complex and fluctuating the schedule, the more prone to human error the manual method becomes. Add to that the fact that courts may issue changes in calendaring rules at any time, and multiple sets of rules often apply to dates in one jurisdiction, and human oversight just compounds the opportunity for errors.
Fortunately, a proven solution exists that not only reduces the risk of calendaring errors, but can also lower the cost of malpractice insurance for an individual litigator or a law firm. Automated court rules-based calendaring systems are so successful in eliminating calendaring mistakes that over one-half of insurance carriers who write legal malpractice policies give a 5 percent to 25 percent discount to attorneys who use them. (See, "Legal Malpractice: Risk Reduction that Makes Sense," Yellen, Howard.)
Automated calendaring systems reduce insurance rates because they minimize the possibility of missing statutorily required dates. They protect attorneys from malpractice claims and financial loss, and also protect them from breaching attorney-client privilege. (See, "Legal Software That Pays for Itself," Kalmick, David.)
There are many legal calendar/docket vendors, but only a few that also offer court rules databases. A court rules calendaring company periodically creates and issues rules sets as databases for various jurisdictions. Users of rules-based docketing software can then automatically schedule related events with their calendar software based on the pre-programmed court rules in the databases.
This is different from simple calendaring software that allows attorneys to enter upcoming events into a generic computerized calendar, which is like the traditional manual system. Users of generic systems still have to hand-calculate their critical dates, rather than having their software do the work for them.
Instead, proper docketing software should automatically re-formulate a schedule based on changes to the rules published by the courts. The combination of the rules database(s) and a sophisticated, rules-based docketing program creates a powerful calendaring system.
Essential Features
There are a number of features that are absolutely essential to a good calendaring system. If your firm is performing due diligence in obtaining an automated court rules-based system, these are deal makers/breakers. If the program does not have any one of them, keep looking.
Pre-programmed court rules for your local jurisdictions — The system must provide court rules-based databases for jurisdictions in which you practice, including state district and appellate, federal district, appellate circuit and even the Supreme Court. The system should also provide rules sets for special courts like bankruptcy, family court and arbitration.
Automatic date scheduling — All docketing software must be able to automatically and accurately schedule events based on court rules, tracked by each matter, and combine that with the appointments, tasks and other docket dates for each attorney.
Automatic re-calculations — If any jurisdiction publishes new rules, the rules database vendor must update the database, and the docketing software must re-calculate the attorney's calendar immediately. This one feature can save firms hundreds to thousands of hours in staff time each year.
Frequent rules sets updates — The rules sets database company must update the databases frequently. It is extremely important to ask the rules database vendor to explain their updating system for rules changes including interim changes.
Updates done by a team of dedicated attorneys — The vendor should have a team of qualified lawyers who are exclusively dedicated to reviewing court rules and creating databases.
Automatic reminders — The docketing software should have an automatic reminder feature, and you should be able to set repeating reminders for critical dates.
Data validation — Reliable docketing software should include a data validation system. Such systems make it almost impossible for the operator to enter incorrect data. In the best rules-based calendar systems, the programs do not use cryptic codes to select jurisdictions or individual court rules, but employ English-language trees to help users make the correct selections.
Additionally, the better programs validate that users have selected all the rules databases needed to calculate the dates (sometimes four separate rules databases apply to a date calculated in given jurisdictions), and will also check to make sure that the rules databases are applied in the correct order of priority.
Scheduling multiple timekeepers — The docketing software should be able to create and publish the calendars of all lawyers on a matter as a group, a department and by other means. This can be critical for firm management in coordinating teams of litigators.
Scheduling "trigger" dates — A trigger date, one that sets a schedule on motion, can change. The docketing software should give you a choice between automatically adjusting all dates for the matter or only changing the trigger date as applies in any particular case.
Holiday scheduling — The docketing software must factor holidays into its court schedule calculations. Ideally, the vendor should provide accurate holiday tables with every rules database provided. This will help ensure that events are scheduled properly.
Audit trails — A good docketing software program should create an audit trail so you can review every addition, change and deletion for any given matter.
Additional Benefits
Depending on practice size, the number of practice areas and the number of jurisdictions and attorneys, different firms choose to administer their docket systems in various ways. Attorneys may choose to manage their own docket, have a secretary or paralegal manage it, or the firm may have a central system with a firm-wide docket administrator.
No matter what type of administration is used, the malpractice risks are the same. It is equally important to protect yourself by using an automated system with built-in court-rules databases and docketing software.
Firms using automated calendaring also find that increased efficiency reduces the need for additional support staff time and actually boosts firm profits. Perhaps the greatest benefit of all, beyond reduced malpractice risk, lowered insurance costs and increased firm profitability, is the peace of mind a completely reliable calendaring system can give to busy litigators. Attorneys are then free to focus their attention on the important substantive issues of their cases.
Larry A. Crapo is vice president of sales and marketing at CompuLaw, LLC. He can be reached at (800) 444-0020, or visit the website at www.compulaw.com.
Lawyers Weekly Publications, 41 West Street, Boston, Massachusetts, 02111, (800) 444-5297
© 2003 Lawyers Weekly Inc., All Rights Reserved.
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September 16, 2002
