Practice
Court-day math: federal vs state deadlines, explained
FRCP Rule 6 vs state-court rules, how holidays affect filing deadlines, and the calculation mistakes that get cases dismissed.
Filing deadlines look simple until you have a Monday holiday, a clerk's office that closes at 4 p.m., and a service rule that excludes weekends but counts the day of service. Get one of those wrong and you lose your motion on a technicality.
Federal Rule 6 in plain English
Under FRCP 6(a)(1), when you compute a period stated in days or longer:
- Exclude the day of the event that triggers the period.
- Count every day, including weekends and legal holidays.
- Include the last day. But if the last day is a Saturday, Sunday, or legal holiday, the period continues to the next day that is not.
Where this trips up solo practice
- State-court rules vary. Some states exclude weekends for periods under 11 days. California and New York have their own quirks.
- Clerk's-office hours matter. If the last day's clerk closes at 4 p.m. and you file at 5 p.m., you're late even though the day was technically valid.
- Federal holidays drift. Inauguration Day in DC is a holiday every four years. Juneteenth is a federal holiday post-2021. Your calendar tool may not know.
How Draftiro handles it
Draftiro computes filing deadlines under both FRCP 6 and the relevant state rule. We carry a current list of federal holidays. Court-day math considers clerk-of-court closure dates where we have them. The calculated deadline appears in your matter view with the rule cited so you can verify the logic.
This article was published by the Draftiro team and reviewed by our attorney advisors. See our team and how we track AI ethics opinions.
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