Understanding and Correcting Incorrect Dates in Chronologies

Last updated: February 23, 2026

Understanding and Correcting Dates in Your Chronology

Quick answer: Mary extracts dates from your documents automatically, but complex documents with multiple date references can cause the wrong date to be assigned. You can manually edit dates on individual entries. When editing, enter only a valid date in the date field and leave the time field empty to avoid errors.

Tip: Sort your chronology by date to quickly spot outliers -- entries dated far in the past or future are often the result of an incorrect date extraction. This is the fastest way to identify entries that need correction.

Why Dates May Be Wrong

Mary reads your documents and assigns dates to each chronology entry based on the content. In most cases this works well, but incorrect dates can occur when:

  • Multiple dates in one document. A medical report dated 15 March 2024 might reference an injury from 8 January 2023 and a follow-up appointment on 2 April 2024. Mary may pick any of these dates.

  • Confusion between similar dates. In a personal injury matter, Mary might assign a claimant's date of birth instead of the date of the accident, especially when both appear close together in the document.

  • Referenced events vs document dates. An affidavit dated September 2024 that describes events from 2019 may have its entries dated to 2019 or 2024, depending on which date Mary identifies as most relevant.

  • Undated or draft documents. When a document has no clear date, Mary will infer one based on context clues. These are marked as "inferred" dates.

How Inferred Dates Work

When Mary cannot find an explicit date in a document, it will infer a date based on surrounding context and label it as "inferred". The entry will include reasoning for why that date was chosen.

Inferred dates are Mary's best estimate. They should be reviewed and corrected if necessary, particularly for undated letters, internal memos, or draft documents that lack clear date references.

How to Correct a Date

  1. Click on the chronology entry you want to edit.

  2. Click the date field to open it for editing.

  3. Enter the correct date in the date field.

  4. Leave the time field empty. Do not enter any words or text in the time box. Entering text in the time field will cause an error.

  5. If the entry is currently marked as inferred and you are entering a confirmed date, toggle off "Mark date inferred".

  6. Save your changes.

Avoid the "something went wrong" error: This error typically appears when text or words are entered in the time field. The time field only accepts valid time formats or should be left blank. If you want to add descriptive information about a document, put it in the fact description field instead.

Tips for Spotting Date Errors Quickly

  1. Sort by date. Entries with obviously wrong dates -- such as a 1985 date in a 2024 personal injury matter -- will appear at the very top or bottom of your sorted chronology.

  2. Check the source document. Click through to the source viewer to see what dates appear in the original document and confirm which one Mary should have used.

  3. Look for date-of-birth confusion. In personal injury and medical negligence matters, dates of birth frequently appear alongside event dates. If an entry is dated to a year that matches the claimant's birth year, it likely needs correction.

Practical Example

A personal injury practitioner uploads hospital records for a client born on 12 June 1988 who was in an accident on 3 February 2024. Several chronology entries appear dated 12 June 1988 instead of 3 February 2024. This happens because the date of birth appears on every page of the hospital records, and Mary sometimes picks it up as the event date.

Solution: Sort the chronology by date, identify the entries incorrectly dated to 1988, click each one, and correct the date to 3 February 2024.

Known Limitations

Complex documents remain challenging. Documents with many date references -- such as medical chronologies, police briefs, or court transcripts referencing multiple hearing dates -- are more likely to produce incorrect date assignments. We are continuously improving date extraction accuracy, but manual review is recommended for these document types.

If This Doesn't Resolve Your Issue

  1. If the "something went wrong" error persists after clearing the time field, refresh the page and try again.

  2. Ensure you are entering only valid date formats (e.g., 03/02/2024) and not typing descriptive text into the date or time fields.

  3. If a large number of entries have incorrect dates from the same document, note the document name and email support@marytechnology.com with a screenshot. This helps us improve date extraction for similar document types.