Case Management and Litigation Deadlines

Calendaring Discipline

Deadline Calculation

Deadline Calculation

Deadline Calculation

Deadline calculation applies the governing rule's counting method, addressing whether the trigger day is included, whether weekends and holidays count, how periods ending on non-business days are handled, and whether additional days are added for the service method.

Federal Rule 6 provides the computation method.

Alternative Names:

Computing Deadlines, Time Computation

Why it Matters?

The recurring errors are consistent: counting from filing rather than service, forgetting added days for particular service methods, and missing that a period ending on a court holiday extends to the next business day. Local rules and standing orders also modify computation in some courts. Because the errors are systematic rather than random, rules-based calendaring eliminates most of them where the trigger is entered correctly.

Frequently asked questions

What are the common calculation errors?

Do local rules affect computation?