Deadlines and Events

A matter’s deadlines and events give the team a chronology of work that must happen and work that has happened. A deadline has a type, due date, owner, completion date and receipt field. An event can record a hearing, filing, review, decision or communication, with its occurrence and due dates. Both connect to the matter so a reviewer can see the time context behind a decision.

The owner of a deadline is a linked team member. This matters during handoff: a coordinator can see who must act and a supervising attorney can examine the same obligation before closing the matter. A due date alone is not evidence that a filing happened. The completion date and court receipt record the subsequent result where the work calls for one.

• Due work. Assign a deadline owner and record the due date and type as soon as the obligation is known.
• Matter chronology. Use dated event lines for hearings, filings, reviews, decisions and communications.
• Evidence of completion. Record completion and external receipt information on the appropriate record.

Agree the source for due dates, the team’s time zone and how date changes are approved. Decide whether the responsible person or a coordinator enters the completion information. If a court or filing portal is involved, agree how its confirmation is carried into the matter record. A calendar connection can alert people, but the matter record should keep the accountable owner and source evidence.

Decide how to distinguish an event that happened from a planned event. A review scheduled for next week should not be reported as already completed. Keep the event line number and revision stable when importing earlier chronology. The team should rehearse a changed deadline and an overdue item before relying on a daily queue.

Suppose a filing obligation arises while the team prepares a board resolution. The coordinator records its type and due date, links it to the matter, and assigns a team member. The same matter has a review event for the resolution and later a decision event. These entries let the supervising attorney inspect the order of events without assuming the board decision itself completed the filing.

After filing, the owner enters the completion date and the external receipt. The auditor can compare those details with the dated event and the matter’s decision history. The owner compares due items with their completion dates in the due work queue and resolves any unfinished filing before closure.

• Due deadlines — Compare due dates with completion dates and receipts before identifying open work.
• Matter event timeline — Read dated milestones in the context of the matter.

See deadline and event follow-up and review and closure.