Advocate Case Diary & Hearing Planner (on-device)

About the Advocate Case Diary & Hearing Planner (on-device)

A case diary for advocates that runs in your browser and keeps every case on your own device. Enter a case as you have it — court and hall, case type, number and year, the CNR you typed from eCourts, the parties, which side you appear for, the client and the opposite counsel — and its next date. After a hearing, record the proceedings and the next date: the case moves to that date by itself, so the next day’s board is always ready, grouped by court. Hearings whose proceedings were never recorded are listed as Needs update, so no date is lost.

The calendar shows the month at a glance and gives a calendar file for Google Calendar, Apple Calendar or Outlook, with a reminder the day before. Each case keeps its list of dates — your own events, the filing and the hearings — and a fee ledger of what was agreed and received, with a receipt worded by the engine of the Receipt Generator. A WhatsApp or SMS message tells a client their next date, one client at a time. In the free preview, boards, lists of dates and receipts show as marked page images; a Premium pass unlocks their PDFs, printing and the calendar file.

Common uses

• Advocates who keep a paper diary of next dates and want the next day’s board ready, grouped by court.
• Junior advocates attending several courts in a day who must record what happened in each hearing.
• Chambers that want each client’s list of dates and fee ledger at hand.
• Lawyers anywhere who track hearings by court, case number and next date (the CNR field is optional).

The board and next dates

• A case’s next date is its first hearing on or after today whose proceedings are not recorded yet.
• Record proceedings marks the hearing as done, saves what happened, sets the stage and adds the next hearing on the date you type (unless one is already there). Tick Disposed to close the case with its result.
• The board of a day lists every case with a hearing that day, grouped by court and sorted by hall and case number, with the last date’s proceedings and a blank column to write the next date in court. Print it on A4 or US Letter, with or without clients’ names.
• Needs update lists past hearings without proceedings, oldest first.

CNR numbers and eCourts

For courts on India’s eCourts system, each case has a CNR — 16 letters and digits, written without spaces or hyphens (for example MHAU019999992015). The diary checks the length and the usual pattern of 4 letters and 12 digits, and offers Copy CNR with links to the official eCourts district court services and High Court services, where you paste it and pass their captcha. The diary never reads those sites and never checks a case automatically: the dates and proceedings are what you record.

Lists of dates and case files

A list of dates puts the case’s own events (a contract, a notice, an FIR — whatever you add), the filing date and, as you choose, the recorded hearings in date order, with dates written 07.10.2026. It is a working list from your diary, to check and edit before it goes into a petition. The case file PDF has the parties, the counsel, every hearing with its proceedings and the fee ledger.

Fees and receipts

Each case can carry the fee agreed and every payment received. A receipt uses the wording of the Receipt Generator — “Received with thanks from … the sum of … towards professional fees in …” — with the amount in words, the payment reference, the fee agreed, what was paid earlier and the balance due. Receipt numbers run on from your prefix and are never given out twice. The Fees tab adds up what was received in a month.

Your clients’ data stays on this device

The diary is kept in this browser’s storage (IndexedDB) on this device and is never uploaded. With a passcode, every record is stored encrypted with AES-256-GCM under a key that only your passcode opens (PBKDF2-SHA-256, 600,000 iterations, as the OWASP Password Storage Cheat Sheet recommends), and the diary locks itself after the minutes you choose. The encrypted backup moves it to another device. A lost passcode or passphrase cannot be recovered by anyone.

Limitations

• One device: the diary lives in one browser and does not sync. Move it with the encrypted backup or the JSON export.
• No automatic case status: dates, stages and proceedings are what you record. The eCourts links open the official sites; the diary reads nothing from them.
• Client reminders are never sent automatically or to many clients at once: each is a WhatsApp or SMS link that you open and send yourself.
• The list of dates is a working draft from your entries, not a court filing; check it before you use it.
• Receipts are payment receipts, not tax invoices.

Privacy

Cases, clients, proceedings and fees stay in this browser on your device (IndexedDB), encrypted when you set a passcode. Boards, lists of dates and receipts are made on the device, and backups are encrypted on the device. Nothing is uploaded, and no court website is contacted.