Automate Tasks When Cases, Clients, or Events Change

Task automation creates case tasks (events on your task board) when something happens in MyLawyerLink — a new court date, a case closed, a custom field updated, or a client's first matter opened. Rules save repetitive follow-up work across the firm.

Open task automation settings

1. Go to Account → Settings → Office → Automations (/account/settings/office/automations).
2. Click through to Task automation on your team profile (/account/teams/[id]#task-automation).

Only team owners and admins can create or edit rules. Child teams may see parent-firm rules as read-only.

Create a rule

1. Click Add rule.
2. Set a name staff will recognize in automation history.
3. Choose a trigger — what causes the task to be created.
4. Define the task: title, description, task type, assignee, and days offset (before or after the trigger date).
5. Save.

Task titles and descriptions are plain text — they are not merge-field templates.

Trigger types

Trigger	When it fires
Case event added	A case event of selected types is created (court date, deadline, etc.)
Case status changes	Case status moves to one of your selected values
Case custom field changes	A watched case field changes; optional target values limit when the rule runs
Client custom field changes	A watched client field changes; task attaches to the client's most recent case in the team
New client — first case	The client's first case in the team is created
First case in this team	A client assigned to the team gets their first case there
Website form submitted	Someone submits an embeddable website intake form; leave forms empty for any form, or pick specific forms

Custom-field triggers can fire more than once on the same case when values change repeatedly. Most other triggers deduplicate so you get one task per rule per case.

Days offset and weekends

Set days before or days after the trigger date for the task due date. For example, "3 days before" a court date creates a prep task due three days ahead.

Enable Use previous Friday if weekend or Monday when you want due dates that would land on Saturday, Sunday, or Monday moved to the prior Friday — calculated in your team timezone, not UTC.

Parent and child teams

Firm (parent) team rules can apply to child team cases. Assignees resolve to users on the case's team when possible. Child teams see inherited rules labeled with the parent team name; they cannot edit parent rules locally.

Verify rules work

1. Create or update a test case that matches the trigger.
2. Open Events & Calendar (/events) and check the tasks view or automation history.
3. Adjust assignee, offset, or trigger filters if the task fired at the wrong time or on the wrong matter.

Tips

1. Start with one high-value trigger — for example, a task when status changes to "Closed" for file closing checklist.
2. Name rules after the outcome — "Send closing letter task" beats "Rule 7."
3. Review custom-field rules — they can create duplicate tasks if fields change often.
4. Coordinate with task types — pick a task type your team already uses on the task board for consistent reporting.

Redwell automation

Task rules create a task immediately. Redwell automation waits until the offset, then runs Redwell for that matter.

1. Open Account → Settings → Office → Automations and choose Redwell automation.
2. Pick event types (for example court dates), a day offset such as -14 or -1, and a preset.
3. Hearing brief writes a review note in a Redwell thread. Generate document previews uses a document generation set and leaves preview links. Nothing is saved to the case or sent to the client until a person opens the thread.
4. Choose who Redwell runs as. That person owns the thread and gets an in-app notification.

If the event is added after the offset but before the hearing, Redwell runs on the next check. If the hearing is already over, the run is skipped. Changing the event date reschedules pending runs.

Related guides

• Client Reminders — automated messages to clients (not internal tasks)
• Import Clients and Cases from CSV — bulk data before turning on automations