Simple app for calculating sitting date

John_Mc

Hi,

My wife is a solicitor and so are most of her friends. One of them was explaining to me how tricky it can be to work out the dates because of how the sittings work and how the time is conveyed to you (e.g 3 weeks).

So I built a simple application which takes a time frame and gives you the actual date. You can export/download it as a calendar appointment for your phone or outlook then.

It's free and simple to use. Her friends said it's very useful and has been correct for her so far. I said I'd share it here as it's sitting there for anyone to use.

http://courtdates.ie

Sixtoes

Why have you set the max days ahead at 71 and weeks at 10?

John_Mc

Sixtoes wrote: »

Why have you set the max days ahead at 71 and weeks at 10?

The sittings for next year probably haven't been added to the database yet so it's not able to calculate it. I don't think they were published when I was working on it a while back.

Good catch - I'll do it later

John_Mc

That's fixed now (2019 sittings added).

sexmag

Youll be putting assistants and receptionists out of business now haha

John_Mc

Either that, or they'll use it and their job will get a lot easier!

FishOnABike

I think it needs to include an explanation as to how the date is calculated as it's far from clear.

E.g. if I take today's date (12/20/2018) and put in 83 days for the length of time, the app returns 25/01/2019 (Friday) as the calculated date.

However 83 days from 12/10/2018 is 03/01/2019.

John_Mc

FishOnABike wrote: »

I think it needs to include an explanation as to how the date is calculated as it's far from clear.

E.g. if I take today's date (12/20/2018) and put in 83 days for the length of time, the app returns 25/01/2019 (Friday) as the calculated date.

However 83 days from 12/10/2018 is 03/01/2019.

The reason I created the app is because it's not just a matter of adding days to a date. It works off the court sitting dates so if you enter 83 days, it would be 83 days over the sittings, the time between the sittings is excluded.

It's a crazy system and very hard to work out, hence the reason I made the app.

You can expand the sittings in the results by clicking on them and it gives you the start and end date of the sittings.

In your example, the first sitting in 2019 is Hilary and that doesn't start until the 11th January.

nuac

Congrats on your app. Wish it every success

FishOnABike

John_Mc wrote: »

The reason I created the app is because it's not just a matter of adding days to a date. It works off the court sitting dates so if you enter 83 days, it would be 83 days over the sittings, the time between the sittings is excluded.

It's a crazy system and very hard to work out, hence the reason I made the app.

You can expand the sittings in the results by clicking on them and it gives you the start and end date of the sittings.

In your example, the first sitting in 2019 is Hilary and that doesn't start until the 11th January.

In my experience in the district, circuit and high court I've never experienced a return date being given in terms of "in X sitting days time". The return date has, in my experience, always been for a specific, named date. e.g. listed for mention only on 11th January 2019.

If the app only counts sitting dates how does it accommodate vacation sittings or the district courts which have different sitting terms / vacation periods than the superior courts ?

hullaballoo

The High Court in particular will adjourn or relist etc matters for, say, 6 weeks time. Often, unless you specifically ask what date or are paying attention from the very beginning, the date won't be mentioned, so you have to work it out.

It's not incredibly taxing to do so but I can certainly see the advantage of having an app for time saving.

I think this is probably the only site in the world where someone could put work into developing an app, for no personal gain, only for the ease of others, share it and then be attacked for doing so.

FishOnABike

John_Mc wrote: »

The reason I created the app is because it's not just a matter of adding days to a date. It works off the court sitting dates so if you enter 83 days, it would be 83 days over the sittings, the time between the sittings is excluded.

It's a crazy system and very hard to work out, hence the reason I made the app.

You can expand the sittings in the results by clicking on them and it gives you the start and end date of the sittings.

In your example, the first sitting in 2019 is Hilary and that doesn't start until the 11th January.

That clears it up a bit. Handy for the intended user group who know how to apply it properly

Not sure if it would be useful but would an option, possibly defaulted to counting sitting days only (have to have a think about weekends) make the app more flexible / wider utility.

If counting all days it could also then flag if a calculated date fell outside the scheduled court terms and prompt the user to query if it was intended to be a vacation sitting.

John_Mc

FishOnABike wrote: »

In my experience in the district, circuit and high court I've never experienced a return date being given in terms of "in X sitting days time". The return date has, in my experience, always been for a specific, named date. e.g. listed for mention only on 11th January 2019.

If the app only counts sitting dates how does it accommodate vacation sittings or the district courts which have different sitting terms / vacation periods than the superior courts ?

The circuit and district courts vary by locality and it's too complex to model and keep up to date. I was told they give it in weeks for high court, supreme court and court of appeal.

hullaballoo wrote: »

The High Court in particular will adjourn or relist etc matters for, say, 6 weeks time. Often, unless you specifically ask what date or are paying attention from the very beginning, the date won't be mentioned, so you have to work it out.

It's not incredibly taxing to do so but I can certainly see the advantage of having an app for time saving.

I think this is probably the only site in the world where someone could put work into developing an app, for no personal gain, only for the ease of others, share it and then be attacked for doing so.

Thank you!

FishOnABike wrote: »

That clears it up a bit. Handy for the intended user group who know how to apply it properly

Not sure if it would be useful but would an option, possibly defaulted to counting sitting days only (have to have a think about weekends) make the app more flexible / wider utility.

If counting all days it could also then flag if a calculated date fell outside the scheduled court terms and prompt the user to query if it was intended to be a vacation sitting.

If the date falls on a weekend it carries over to the next day that the court would be sitting. Weekends are excluded I think. I modelled it based on what the solicitors who asked me for it said it works. They've been using it a while and said it is working correctly, and it makes it a lot easier.