Federal court deadline calculator (FRCP 6)

Rule 6(a) governs any period in the rules, a local rule, a court order, or a statute that does not set its own method. Exclude the day of the event, count every day, include the last day, and if the last day is a Saturday, Sunday or legal holiday, run to the next day that is not.

A defendant served on Monday January 5, 2026 answers within 21 days: Monday January 26. Discovery served on Friday November 6, 2026 by hand is due 30 days later, on Sunday December 6, which moves to Monday December 7. Thanksgiving falls inside that period and still counts.

For a period measured before an event, such as a filing due 7 days before a hearing, Rule 6(a)(5) counts backward, and a weekend or holiday on the last day moves the deadline earlier, not later.

Seven days before a hearing on Monday January 26, 2026 is Monday January 19, Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The deadline moves back past the weekend to Friday January 16. Choose Custom and Before the date to count this way.

When a party must act within a period after being served, and service was by mail, by leaving the papers with the clerk, or by other means the party consented to, 3 days are added after the period would otherwise expire under Rule 6(a). Electronic service through the court's system adds nothing.

The order matters. Requests mailed on Thursday August 6, 2026 reach day 30 on Saturday September 5. Monday is Labor Day, so the period expires on Tuesday September 8, and the 3 days end on Friday September 11. This is the sequence the Advisory Committee Note to the 2005 amendment works through.

Rule 6(d) does not reach periods that run from entry of judgment, such as a Rule 59 motion (28 days) or a notice of appeal (30 days, FRAP 4(a)(1)).

The legal holidays are the eleven days of 5 U.S.C. 6103 on the days set aside for observing them, any day the President or Congress declares a holiday, and, for periods counted forward, any day declared a holiday by the state where the district court sits (FRCP 6(a)(6)). The calculator holds the federal days for 2026 and 2027; see the court holidays 2026 list.

State holidays are not added. In a district in California, for example, Lincoln Day or Farmworkers Day on the last day of a forward count would move the federal deadline a further day. If the clerk's office is inaccessible on the last day, Rule 6(a)(3) extends the time to the first accessible day.