Find the best Legal Calendaring & Docketing Software

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Clio

Ranked #1, Clio is the leading law practice management software used by over 150,000 lawyers and with the most 5-star reviews. The only legal software with 1,500+ reviews on Capterra. Lawyers can access and manage their work in ...Read more about Clio

4.7 (1596 reviews)

335 recommendations

Filevine

Filevine is your ultimate legal tech stack, including case and document management, texting, and time and billing features. Powerful AI tools summarize and find inconsistencies in documents in as quick as a few minutes. Get your f...Read more about Filevine

4.5 (204 reviews)

265 recommendations

MyCase

MyCase is a cloud-based legal management solution that helps attorneys in small to medium size law firms manage communications with their clients and carry out daily business operations. The solution also provides functionalities ...Read more about MyCase

4.7 (681 reviews)

220 recommendations

Curo365

Built on the most powerful cloud-based solution, Curo365 resides on the Microsoft Dynamics 365 platform built specifically for law firms and integrates with your existing Microsoft Office 365 applications. The only singular soluti...Read more about Curo365

4.7 (14 reviews)

9 recommendations

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Litify

Litify was selected as the 2022 Practice Management Solution Provider of the Year. Learn more: https://www.litify.com/blog/litify-selected-2022-practice-management-solution-of-year/ Litify is the end-to-end legal operating platfo...Read more about Litify

4.6 (55 reviews)

8 recommendations

SmartAdvocate

The concept for SmartAdvocate was first created by a national plaintiff’s personal injury law firm. In their search for a software product to help resolve many of their specific case management challenges, they realized there were...Read more about SmartAdvocate

4.8 (99 reviews)

4 recommendations

LawToolBox

Are you still manually calculating & calendaring legal deadlines? Make your work easier with a court date calculator inside Outlook and Teams. Find out why Microsoft awarded us "Best Integration" for Office 365. Save time, reduce...Read more about LawToolBox

4.2 (52 reviews)

1 recommendations

Wrike

Wrike is a cloud-based project management platform for teams of 20+ that is suitable for both large enterprises and SMBs. It supports remote work for various teams. This solution comes with Gantt charts, calendars, workload view f...Read more about Wrike

PracticePanther Legal Software

PracticePanther Legal Software is a legal management solution for small to large practices specializing in areas including bankruptcy, personal injury, family, divorce, estate planning, litigation, criminal law and many more. The ...Read more about PracticePanther Legal Software

AbacusLaw

AbacusLaw is case automation software designed explicitly for law firms. The system works as a complete practice management solution that helps in managing workflows including time tracking, billing, and accounting operations. Aba...Read more about AbacusLaw

CosmoLex

CosmoLex is a cloud-based legal management solution that offers features including time tracking, billing, trust accounting, task and document management. The solution connects all modules so that users do not have to enter i...Read more about CosmoLex

LEAP

LEAP is the legal practice productivity solution designed to help small to mid-sized law firms improve efficiency, productivity, and profitability. LEAP leverages best-in-class technology to help law firms with practice management...Read more about LEAP

Rocket Matter

Rocket Matter is a cloud-based legal billing and management solution designed to cater small and midsize law practices. It features time and billing management, calendar, document management, payments and collaboration management ...Read more about Rocket Matter

Amicus Attorney

Amicus Attorney is a legal case management software solution to help you manage your growing law practice. Access every case detail in a single, intuitive solution. Automatically capture client and case information, track billable...Read more about Amicus Attorney

HoudiniESQ

HoudiniEsq is a hybrid law practice management solution that caters to law practices of all sizes and provides them the functionalities to manage various business routines which include cases, billing, invoicing and several other ...Read more about HoudiniESQ

Soluno

Soluno is a cloud-based time, billing, and accounting solution designed for law firms of all sizes. Soluno streamlines back-office processes—from time and expense entry, to receiving payments, to financial reports—while remaining ...Read more about Soluno

Calendbook

Calendbook.com offers businesses a streamlined scheduling solution that enhances workflow and drives lead generation through shareable calendar links. Customers can effortlessly book appointments without the hassle of coordinatin...Read more about Calendbook

LeanLaw

LeanLaw is a cloud-based timekeeping and billing solution for small to midsize legal practices. Key features include time tracking, billing and invoicing, financial reporting and Quickbooks integration. A free mobile app is also a...Read more about LeanLaw

SeedLegals

SeedLegals is an online platform for founders and investors. It helps create free page to share a deck, company info and fundraising details with investors in one URL. SeedLegals members can see who's viewed their page, and store ...Read more about SeedLegals

MerusCase

MerusCase is a cloud-based legal practice management solution for small, midsize and large legal firms and businesses. It is HIPAA compliant and offers document management, time tracking, billing, calendaring and communication too...Read more about MerusCase

Buyers Guide

Last Updated: November 21, 2023

A significant percentage of legal malpractice claims stem from calendar and docket issues, according to data gathered by the American Bar Association (ABA). Together, the following make up roughly 25 percent of malpractice claims:

  • Failure to calendar properly

  • Failure to know or ascertain a deadline correctly

  • Procrastination in performing services or lack or a follow-up

  • Failure to react to calendar

These claims are hard to dispute: You either made a deadline or you didn't. Any firm—but small firms especially—can't afford to put themselves at risk for a malpractice suit from something so easily preventable.

Before you brush off that statement, consider that in 2015, over 440 legal malpractice claims resulted in claimants receiving over $1 million dollars in payment, according to a profile of the ABA's study of Legal Malpractice Claims from 2012 to 2015.

To combat this risk, many firms use calendaring and docketing software to provide early warnings and reminders of due dates for filings, court dates and case-related tasks and to create an audit trail for compliance and regulation review.

We've created this guide to outline what you can expect to find in calendaring and docketing software and help you understand how it fits within the larger legal software marketplace.

Here's what we'll cover:

What Is Legal Calendaring and Docketing Software?

Common Features of Legal Calendaring and Docketing Software

What Type of Buyer Are You?

Purchase Considerations

What Is Legal Calendaring and Docketing Software?

Calendaring and docketing software helps lawyers manage their files, tasks, deadlines and appointments surrounding cases and trials.

In an industry where missing deadlines has serious legal consequences, having a transparent, collaborative and redundant (i.e., a backed up or duplicated) system in place to manage calendaring and docketing is an important part of a firm's risk management strategy.

These tools automate what historically had been a very manual and tedious process surrounding case file maintenance and management.

Prior to automated calendaring and docketing software, a typical process looked something like this:

Manual Docketing Process

Steps-in-a-manual-docketing-process,-using-index-cards-and-a-card-box

The dated index card is called a “tickler." Sometimes a due date on a tickler was used simply to remind the attorney to review a case and check on it's status (rather than complete a specific action item). On a recurring basis (typically once a month), office staff was responsible for reviewing the tickler box to ensure cards weren't misfiled or hadn't been overlooked.

This was how firms handled files. There was a separate, but related, process for managing schedules for appointments, court appearances and client meetings.

Now, docketing software helps firms create an automated process to manage all tasks, files and deadlines associated with cases and ensure reminders are set and schedules are accurate.

Typically, one person (or more, depending on the size of your firm) is responsible for inputting dates into the system for each case and assuring compliance with court rules and deadlines.

A separate person is responsible for managing calendars, both the individual calendars of the attorneys and shared calendars among the firm. This person reviews mail, email, faxes etc. for dates and deadlines and adds them to the appropriate schedule.

Then, the system acts to provide checks and reminders of impending due dates and case-related tasks. This not only makes the attorney and office staff more organized (and audit ready), but it promotes a better attorney-client relationship as there are less mistakes and missed deadlines.

Because the cards in the manual system were referred to as “ticklers," you may still see this term used to refer to the automated organization system in docketing software. For example, TrialWorks, is a case management software that uses a digital “tickler system."

Adding-a-tickler-to-a-docket-in-TrialWorks-software

Adding a tickler to a docket in TrialWorks

Some cloud-based systems, such as Clio, will auto-generate dates for court rules within the attorney's jurisdiction based on the “trigger" event being logged.

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Adding items to the docket using “Court Rules" functionality in Clio

Calendaring and docketing tools are available as best-of-breed solutions (BoB), or as an application within a larger practice management suite.

Firms looking for highly collaborative solutions should consider cloud-based tools as they'll offer the highest degree of transparency and to-the-minute updates.

For example, if an attorney is out of the office and a paralegal receives an email about an urgent discovery item, they can update the attorney's calendar from the office. The system will alert the attorney that a new task has been added to their calendar, and the attorney can check it on their mobile device or laptop.

Maintaining strict rules and protocol around calendaring and docketing is crucial for risk management and ensuring compliance with regulations. This includes workflows dictating who adds tasks and due dates, that there are “read" receipts in the system for when the attorney receives them, that there is a saved history of when auto-generated reminders for deadlines were sent out and of course when the task was completed along with relevant documentation.

Common Features of Calendaring & Docketing Software

Expect to see some or all of the following capabilities as you evaluate calendaring and docketing software:

Email integration

Integration with common email platforms, including Microsoft Outlook and Gmail. Users can create tasks or calendar events directly from email and can view appointments across devices.

Task management

Review cases and create task lists encompassing action items to be completed by the attorney (and firm staff) to bring the case to a close. Assign to users and schedule due dates. Save task lists to easily load workflows into future, similar cases.

Calendar management

View tasks, appointments, meetings and docket items by day, week, month or year. Schedule due dates in accordance with court rules. Filter by attorney, case file or client. Link related events and if there is rescheduling, due dates for related events will shift as well.

Document management

Upload, share and attach files to cases in a secure format. Use versioning to view and if necessary, restore previous versions. Use access controls to dictate who can access, change and share files.

Case management

Store and retrieve case information (including contact information, documents, tasks and schedules) in a centralized, searchable database. Check for conflicts of interest and statute of limitations.

Court rules/ rules-based scheduling

Import court-specified due dates for various tasks relating to your cases by jurisdiction from a database. Set up rules for events or category so dates auto-generate when that event is selected.

Automatic reminders

Schedule notifications to remind assigned users of upcoming deadlines for case-related tasks (e.g., court filings, client meetings, responding to discovery etc.). Set up alerts with enough lead time so the task can be completed and logged.

Audit trail

Save a history of all calendaring and docketing action-items, “read" receipts for tasks and a history of reminders sent out about tasks. The audit trail protects the firm and the attorney in the event of a malpractice suit and keeps users compliant with regulations.

What Type of Buyer Are You?

According to 2016 U.S. lawyer demographic research by the ABA (highlighted in this infographic by PracticePanther), 75 percent of attorneys in the private sector work for small firms with 20 or fewer practicing attorneys. Of that, 49 percent work at solo practices.

Below is how your calendaring and docketing needs should break down across your size of business:

Solo practice (one attorney): Look for email integration with a shared calendar tool, task management and matter management (i.e., BoB calendaring and docketing will suffice).

Small practice (two to 20 attorneys): Everything for the solo attorney plus look for case management software that includes calendaring and docketing and document management.

Midsize practice (21 - 50 attorneys): Everything for the small practice, and in addition look for time keeping and a legal billing solution.

Large law firm (more than 50 attorneys): Large law firms will need a comprehensive practice management solution, often one geared toward their specific practice area (see below).

Purchase Considerations

The specific calendar and docket needs of your firm may vary based on your practice area. Common case-related calendar and docket tasks for different practice areas include:

Litigation:

Court filings, court dates and appearances, pleading deadlines, discovery dates and opposing party deadlines.  * Patent, copyright or trademark: Deadlines for filing applications, dates of annuity and maintenance payments.

  • Real estate: Deadlines for contracts, loans, inspection dates, closing dates and lien notification dates.

  • Corporate/commercial: Annual meetings and deadlines for tax returns, financial statements and regulatory filings.