Court Date Calculator

DateMath follows Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 6(a)(1): it leaves out the day of the event that triggers the period, counts every day after it, weekends and holidays included, and when the last day is a Saturday, Sunday or legal holiday, moves on to the next day that is none of them. Before an event, such as a hearing, DateMath counts backward and moves to the court day before (Rule 6(a)(5)). In court-days mode only weekdays that are not federal holidays count, so the last day is always a court day. Legal holidays are the 11 federal holidays on their observed dates; state holidays and days the court is closed are not included.

• Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 6(a). DateMath counts court deadlines by FRCP 6(a)(1): the day of the event that triggers the period is left out, every day after it counts, weekends and holidays included, and a last day on a Saturday, Sunday or legal holiday moves to the next day that is none of them; before an event the count runs backward (6(a)(5)). Legal holidays are the federal holidays of 6(a)(6)(A); days declared by the President or Congress and state holidays also count under the rule and must be added by hand. Source: FRCP Rule 6.
• US federal holidays. DateMath skips the 11 annual holidays of 5 U.S.C. 6103 on the days they are observed for federal employees, as the US Office of Personnel Management (OPM) lists them: a Saturday holiday on the Friday before, a Sunday holiday on the Monday after. Source: 5 U.S.C. 6103, OPM federal holidays.

DateMath's date math is tested against more than 100 cases worked out by hand. Every worked example and table on the site is computed with the same code the calculators run, so a page and its calculator can't disagree.

DateMath counts a period stated in days the way Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 6(a)(1) sets out, in three steps. The appellate, bankruptcy and criminal rules count periods the same way, and many state rules follow the same pattern.

1. Leave out the day of the event that triggers the period, such as the day of service or the day an order is entered.
2. Count every day after it, Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays included.
3. Include the last day, but if it is a Saturday, Sunday or legal holiday, the period runs until the end of the next day that is none of them.

Example: 30 days after Friday, April 30, 2027. Day 1 is Saturday, May 1, 2027, and day 30 is Sunday, May 30, 2027. That day and the next are Sunday and Memorial Day, so the deadline is Tuesday, June 1, 2027, 32 calendar days after the trigger date. The calculator shows the same steps: the trigger day, the day the count lands on, and each day the deadline moved over.

The federal rules count calendar days: every day counts, and only a last day that lands on a weekend or holiday moves. That is the calculator's default, the court date calendar calculator. Some state rules count court days instead, often for notice before a hearing, and then weekends and holidays are skipped all the way through, so the same number of days reaches much further.

Before 2009, the federal rules left weekends and holidays out of periods shorter than 11 days. The current rule counts every day, and most short periods were lengthened to multiples of 7 days to make up for it, which is why so many federal periods are 7, 14, 21 or 28 days. Check which method the rule for your deadline uses before you pick the count.

Some deadlines run before an event: papers due 14 days before a hearing, for example. Choose Before and enter the hearing date as the trigger. The hearing day is left out and the count runs backward, and when the last day is a weekend or holiday, Rule 6(a)(5) says to keep counting backward, so the deadline comes earlier, never later.

14 days before Monday, July 19, 2027 lands on Monday, July 5, 2027; counting back over Independence Day, Sunday and Saturday, the deadline is Friday, July 2, 2027. Counted in court days, 16 court days before the same hearing is Thursday, June 24, 2027.

A last day on a legal holiday moves to the next court day, or to the court day before when the count runs backward. The table gives both for each holiday of 2027, on the day it is observed. A holiday on a Monday turns a deadline on the Saturday, Sunday or Monday into a Tuesday deadline.

Rule 6(a)(6) also counts any day the President or Congress declares a holiday and, for periods after an event, the holidays of the state where the court sits. Those are not built in: when one falls on the last day, move the deadline to the next court day yourself. The US federal holidays page lists every year's observed dates.

A few periods that come up in most federal civil cases, counted from Monday, March 1, 2027 as the trigger date. Each rule has exceptions and other triggers; read the rule itself before relying on a date.

When a party must act within a time after being served and service was made by mail, by leaving the papers with the clerk, or by other means the party consented to, Rule 6(d) adds 3 days after the period would otherwise expire. Electronic service through the court's filing system gets no extra days. The calculator does not add them on its own, because the 3 days come after the moved last day, not before it.

So count in two steps: first the period, then 3 calendar days from its deadline. 30 days after mail service on Thursday, July 8, 2027 lands on Saturday, August 7, 2027 and moves to Monday, August 9, 2027; enter that as the new trigger date with 3 days and the deadline is Thursday, August 12, 2027. Counting 33 days in one step would give Tuesday, August 10, 2027, which is why the order matters.

• Local rules and orders. A judge's order or a local rule can set its own deadline or way of counting, and it decides over the general rule.
• State courts. Each state has its own rule of time and its own holidays. Many match the federal rule; some count court days, add days for mailing differently, or treat the trigger day otherwise.
• Court closures. If the clerk's office is inaccessible on the last day, Rule 6(a)(3) extends the time to the first accessible day that is not a weekend or holiday.
• Periods in hours. Rule 6(a)(2) counts periods stated in hours hour by hour; this calculator counts days only.
• The end of the last day. Under Rule 6(a)(4), the last day ends at midnight in the court's time zone for electronic filing, and when the clerk's office is scheduled to close for filing by other means.

DateMath counts days by the rule it states; it does not give legal advice. For deadlines in business days outside court, such as “within 10 business days” in a contract, use the business days calculator; for plain calendar dates, the date calculator.