The short answer: make a routine in alfred_ in one sentence: “When a hearing notice arrives from the court’s e-filing address, put the hearing on my calendar with the case name, courtroom and judge.” It runs when a matching email arrives and creates the event on your calendar. Check each one against the notice: this saves the retyping, and your docketing system stays the record.
Retyping what the court already wrote
You’re the paralegal for two litigation attorneys at a small firm. Every day the court’s e-filing system emails notices: a status conference set, a hearing continued, a motion set for argument. Each one has the case name, the date, the time, the courtroom and the judge.
And each one gets retyped into the attorneys’ calendars. It’s two minutes of careful work, and careful is the point: the one you retype as 9:30 instead of 8:30 is the one that matters.
The native ways, and where they stop
Docketing software. If your firm has it, it is the system of record for court dates and calculates deadlines. Plenty of small firms and solo practices still work from email and a shared calendar, and even firms with docketing software often keep a calendar copy for the attorneys’ day.
Gmail and Outlook event suggestions. Both add events from some emails, mostly travel and reservations from known senders. A court notice isn’t one of them.
Copy and paste. Works, and takes the same two minutes every time.
Make the routine
- Connect the inbox that receives the notices and the calendar the hearings go on. Sign in with Google or Microsoft; iCloud Calendar connects separately.
- On the Routines page, choose Create a routine, or ask alfred_ in the app.
- Say it in one sentence: “When a hearing notice arrives from noreply@courtfiling.example.gov, put the hearing on my calendar with the case name, courtroom and judge in the title.”
- alfred_ shows you the routine it built (what it watches for and what it does) before you turn it on.
Writing routines is covered in Make your own.
Prefer to do one at a time? Ask by text or in the app: “Put the hearing in this morning’s notice for Chen v. Harbor Logistics on my calendar.”
What an event looks like
Hearing: Chen v. Harbor Logistics, Motion to Compel
Tuesday, November 18, 8:30 to 9:30 AM
Courtroom 4B, Judge R. Alvarez
Illustrative example. The case, court and judge are invented.
Where each step happens
- Desktop: make or change the routine on the Routines page, and check the first events against the notices.
- Calendar: the hearings appear on the calendar you named, as ordinary events.
- Phone, between hearings: ask “what’s on the calendar for Chen next week?” or “add the hearing from this notice” by text.
The honest caveat
alfred_ puts the date the notice states on your calendar. It doesn’t calculate deadlines from a filing, it isn’t a docketing system, and it isn’t a substitute for checking the notice yourself. Notices vary by court and some arrive only as PDFs, so check the first few events closely before you rely on the routine. It writes only to the calendars connected to your alfred_. alfred_ is a paid product, and routines run on the credits your plan includes; plans are on the pricing page.
