Court deadline calculator

Leave out the day of the event, count the days, and include the last one. If the last day is a weekend or a court holiday, the deadline moves to the next day the court is open. Federal courts and California courts share this rule (FRCP 6(a)(1), CCP 12 and 12a).

A federal complaint served on Monday January 5, 2026 must be answered within 21 days: the count starts on January 6 and the answer is due Monday January 26. A 14-day period from Saturday January 3 ends on Saturday January 17; Sunday follows, then Martin Luther King Jr. Day, so the deadline is Tuesday January 20.

Holidays inside a calendar-day period still count. Only a holiday on the last day moves the deadline, which is why a long weekend near the end matters more than one in the middle.

A court day is any day that is not a Saturday, a Sunday or a judicial holiday. California counts motion deadlines in court days: moving papers 16 court days before the hearing, the opposition 9, the reply 5 (CCP 1005(b)). The federal rules count every day for every period.

For a hearing on Friday February 27, 2026, 16 court days back is Tuesday February 3, because Lincoln Day on February 12 and Presidents' Day on February 16 are skipped along with the weekends. Counted as calendar days, the same 16 days would give February 11, more than a week too late.

In federal court, service by mail, by leaving the papers with the clerk or by other means the parties agreed to adds 3 days. Electronic service has added nothing since December 2016. The 3 days run after the period has expired under Rule 6(a): 30 days from August 6, 2026 end on Saturday September 5, Monday is Labor Day, the period expires Tuesday, and the deadline is Friday September 11.

California adds 5 calendar days for mail within the state, 10 to another state and 20 abroad, and 2 court days for overnight delivery, fax and electronic service (CCP 1013, 1010.6). None of these extends a notice of appeal or a notice of intention to move for a new trial. The calculator counts the added days from the period's own last day and applies the holiday rule once, at the end. That is the earlier of the two readings in use, so it never gives a date too late.

Federal and California courts close on most of the same days. California also closes for Lincoln Day (February 12), Farmworkers Day (March 31), Native American Day (September 25) and the day after Thanksgiving (November 27). Federal courts close on Columbus Day (October 12), which California courts no longer observe.

July 4, 2026 is a Saturday, so both observe Independence Day on Friday July 3. A deadline that lands on July 3 or 4 moves to Monday July 6. The full lists for 2026 and 2027 are on the court holidays 2026 page.

A court order, a local rule or a statute with its own method of counting overrides the general rule. A clerk's office that is closed or inaccessible on the last day extends the deadline (FRCP 6(a)(3), CCP 12b), and in federal court a holiday declared by the state where the court sits can extend a period counted forward (FRCP 6(a)(6)(C)). The calculator does not know those days. In a count forward from service they can only make the true deadline later; in a count back from a hearing, a closure inside the period can make it earlier.

A day the President declares a holiday after this list was checked is not in it either. Read the result as a check on your own count, and confirm it against the rules and any order in the case.