Case Calendar

Overview

Case Calendar converts federal court docket activity from CourtListener into calendar feeds for hearings and filing deadlines. It is best suited to journalists, researchers, and public-interest case watchers who can run a Python command-line tool and maintain their own deployment. The main attraction is focused, docket-linked monitoring; the main caution is that neither CourtListener’s coverage nor automated date extraction is authoritative.

Key features

Each case receives its own standard ICS feed, which can be subscribed to in calendar applications supporting iCalendar. Subscriber calendars receive hearings and deadlines classified as major, while procedural filings stay in an audit trail. That keeps day-to-day calendars readable, but anyone needing a complete chronology must consult the audit trail and source docket rather than the calendar alone.

One-way synchronization can push events to Google Calendar and Microsoft 365 or Outlook after a one-time OAuth setup. Court-local time zones are preserved, including through daylight-saving changes, so a hearing remains anchored to the court’s local clock. A real-time CourtListener webhook can bypass the daily polling quota; otherwise, updates depend on polling and on entries reaching CourtListener through PACER and RECAP. Dockets that are not monitored upstream may be delayed by months or longer.

Opt-in AI summaries use primary documents and dispositions, connect action phrases to the underlying court documents, and refresh when qualifying documents or event statuses change. Installation supports hosted Anthropic, Google Gemini, and OpenAI APIs, or local Ollama models. Ollama avoids per-token API charges and keeps docket text and PDF contents on the host, a meaningful choice for privacy-conscious users. Hosted models introduce potential LLM costs, while all configurations remain subject to CourtListener API quotas.

Automated deadline calculation and popup or email reminders make the feeds useful as an awareness layer. They do not turn the application into legal calendaring: extraction can miss or misread dates, and the project explicitly says consequential dates should be checked against the source docket.

Pricing

Case Calendar is free and open source under the Apache-2.0 license. There are no paid tiers or seat charges. The practical cost is operational: hosted AI providers may bill for LLM usage, and CourtListener API limits can constrain polling. A local Ollama model removes per-token API costs but requires you to operate the model and host yourself. Because the software is a Python CLI installed from its public GitHub repository, setup and maintenance are part of the ownership burden rather than a paid support service.

Platforms

The tool supports Linux, macOS, and Windows through WSL2, with self-hosted and web deployment options. You configure docket information and API credentials in the command-line installation, then can place its generated static index behind an HTTP server. Calendar consumption depends on an iCalendar-compatible application, while direct pushes target Google Calendar and Microsoft 365 or Outlook.

Who it's for

Choose Case Calendar if you track public-interest federal cases across jurisdictions and want per-case feeds, major-deadline filtering, and optional document-grounded summaries without licensing fees. It fits technically comfortable individuals, newsroom researchers, and small projects able to run Python, manage credentials, and monitor updates. It is not the right primary system for attorneys or teams that require guaranteed, authoritative deadline management, turnkey administration, or complete docket freshness.

Pros and cons

• Pros: Free Apache-2.0 software avoids subscription and seat costs.
• Pros: Per-case ICS feeds work with ordinary calendar subscriptions and keep monitoring separated by matter.
• Pros: Major-deadline filtering reduces procedural noise while retaining those filings in an audit trail.
• Pros: Court-local time-zone handling remains correct across daylight-saving changes.
• Pros: Webhooks can bypass the daily polling quota, and Ollama keeps docket text and PDFs local.
• Cons: CourtListener can lag PACER filings, with unmonitored dockets sometimes delayed months or longer.
• Cons: Automated extraction may miss or misread dates, so consequential deadlines require source-docket verification.
• Cons: Command-line installation, API credentials, hosting, and model operations demand technical ownership.
• Cons: One-way calendar sync does not provide a reciprocal case-management workflow.

Alternatives

For a broader shortlist, see Legal Calendaring Software. Pick Dockets.ca instead if you want a paid service spanning Android, iOS, Linux, macOS, web, and Windows rather than self-hosting.

Deadline Engine suits readers who need citation-backed deadline calculations: its free calculator costs 0.00 USD and requires no account, while the one-off Evidence Record plan is 19.99 USD. ClockOrbit Court Deadline Calculator is a free web tool with no payment required for any tool.

JudgeCalc offers a no-login free calculator and a Pro plan billed per seat monthly or yearly at custom pricing. LitigationDeadline provides no-cost, no-account federal-default calculators. Court Deadline Calculator is another free web option for basic deadline calculations.

Organizations seeking managed deployments should consider Docket Enterprise, an on-premise application with pricing by inquiry, or CourtAlert Case Management, which offers cloud and on-premise deployment with pricing by inquiry and an additional cloud hosting fee.

Verdict

Case Calendar is a strong choice for technically capable journalists, researchers, and advocates who want free, case-specific calendar feeds from federal dockets, with useful filtering and optional private AI processing. Look elsewhere when a missed or stale date carries legal consequences, when you need authoritative attorney-grade calendaring, or when a managed cross-platform service is worth paying for.