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.