Court deadline calculator
Counts a federal civil deadline under Rule 6 and shows every step, every day it stepped over and the rule that governs each one, so you can check the working instead of trusting a date.
Five ways a deadline goes wrong, and the rule that decides each one
Rule 6 is short. It is also counter-intuitive in five specific places, and every one of them is a date that is wrong in the dangerous direction: later than the rule allows. This tool exists to get those five right and to show its working, because a date you cannot check is a date you have to trust.
1. A backward period rolls earlier, not later
Rule 6(a)(1)(C) extends a period to the next day that is not a Saturday, Sunday or legal holiday. Rule 6(a)(5) then defines "next day" as continuing to count forward for a period measured after an event and backward for one measured before an event.
So a motion that must be served at least 14 days before a hearing, landing on a Saturday, moves to the Friday. It does not move to the Monday. A tool that rolls every landing forward is telling you it is acceptable to serve after the last lawful day, on exactly the deadlines where being late is not curable.
2. Three days for mail service, and none for e-service since 2016
Rule 6(d) adds three days for service under Rule 5(b)(2)(C), (D) or (F): mail, leaving with the clerk, and other means consented to. Subparagraph (E), electronic service, was taken out of that list by the amendment effective 1 December 2016.
A CM/ECF notice of electronic filing therefore gets nothing. Adding three days for it is a habit from before 2016 that is still widespread, and it produces a date later than the rule permits. This tool offers electronic service as a choice so that it can say so out loud.
3. The three days come last, and the result rolls again
Rule 6(d) adds the days "after the period would otherwise expire under Rule 6(a)". That ordering is not decoration. Count the period, roll off the weekend or holiday, then add three, then roll again if needed. Two rolls, in that order.
Adding three to the raw count and rolling once produces a different date in a real fraction of cases. The tool reports the Rule 6(a) expiry separately from the final date, so you can see precisely which step moved which day.
4. The holiday is the day it is observed
Rule 6(a)(6)(A) does not point at 4 July. It points at "the day set aside by statute for observing" Independence Day. Under 5 U.S.C. 6103(b) a Saturday holiday is observed the Friday before, and under section 3(a) of Executive Order 11582 a Sunday holiday is observed the Monday after.
In 2026 Independence Day falls on a Saturday, so the legal holiday is Friday 3 July. A 21 day answer period triggered on 12 June lands on that Friday and runs through to Monday 6 July. A calculator holding a fixed list of statutory dates gets that one wrong by a full weekend.
5. State holidays count forward only, and declared days count both ways
Rule 6(a)(6)(C) reaches a day declared a holiday by the state where the district court sits, but only for periods measured after an event. Applied to a backward period it is simply not part of the rule. Rule 6(a)(6)(B), a day declared a holiday by the President or Congress, carries no such limit and counts in either direction.
Neither list can be shipped as data, so the tool asks for the days rather than guessing them, and it asks which of the two subparagraphs they come in under, because that is the fact that decides a backward count and only you have it. It then says in the result which way it went. That is the same approach the weight and balance tool takes to aircraft figures: where the authoritative number lives in a document you have and it does not, it asks.
What it deliberately will not do
It will not read a docket, a local rule, a standing order or a scheduling order, and all four routinely override the federal default. It will not tell you the clerk's office was closed under Rule 6(a)(3). It will not compute a state court period, because state counting rules differ in ways that quietly produce wrong dates.
Where an input is missing or impossible it returns "cannot be determined" and no date at all, rather than the nearest plausible answer. On a tool where a wrong number is a malpractice claim, an empty result is the honest one.
Questions paralegals actually ask
Do weekends count when computing a deadline?
Intermediate weekends count. The final one does not.
Rule 6(a)(1)(B) says to count every day, including intermediate Saturdays, Sundays, and legal holidays. So a 21 day period is 21 calendar days, not 21 business days. This is the single most common error, and it produces a date that is far too late.
Rule 6(a)(1)(C) then deals with the landing: if the last day is a Saturday, Sunday or legal holiday, the period runs to the next day that is not. That is the only place the calendar matters.
The old pre-2009 rule, which excluded weekends from periods under 11 days, is gone. Every period stated in days is now counted the same way.
Does a deadline counted backward from a hearing move forward or backward if it lands on a Saturday?
Backward. This is the trap that matters most, because getting it wrong produces a date that is unlawfully late.
Rule 6(a)(1)(C) extends the period to "the next day that is not a Saturday, Sunday, or legal holiday". Rule 6(a)(5) then defines "next day" as "continuing to count forward when the period is measured after an event and backward when measured before an event".
So for a motion that must be served at least 14 days before a hearing, a Saturday landing moves to the preceding Friday, giving you less time rather than more. A calculator that rolls it forward tells you that you may serve a day after the last lawful day.
Do I still add three days for service by email or CM/ECF?
No, and this is the most common stale rule in circulation.
Rule 6(d) adds three days when service is under Rule 5(b)(2)(C) (mail), (D) (leaving with the clerk) or (F) (other means consented to). Subparagraph (E), electronic service, was removed from that list by the amendment effective 1 December 2016.
So a notice of electronic filing from CM/ECF gets no extra days at all. Practitioners who learned the rule before 2016 routinely add three anyway, which produces a date later than the rule allows.
This tool lists electronic service as an option specifically so that it can tell you it adds nothing, rather than leaving you to assume the old rule survived.
When exactly are the three days for mail service added?
After Rule 6(a) has already finished, and the result is then subject to Rule 6(a)(1)(C) all over again.
Rule 6(d) says the three days are added "after the period would otherwise expire under Rule 6(a)". So the order is: count the period, roll off any weekend or holiday, then add three days, then roll again if that lands on a weekend or holiday.
Adding the three days first and rolling once gives a different answer in a meaningful number of cases. The tool shows both the Rule 6(a) expiry and the final date so you can see which step moved what.
Which holidays count, and what happens when one falls on a weekend?
The eleven federal holidays of 5 U.S.C. 6103(a), plus anything the President or Congress declares, plus state holidays in limited circumstances.
The important detail is which day. Rule 6(a)(6)(A) points at "the day set aside by statute for observing" each holiday, not the statutory date. Under 5 U.S.C. 6103(b) a holiday falling on a Saturday is observed the preceding Friday, and under section 3(a) of Executive Order 11582 one falling on a Sunday is observed the following Monday.
So when Independence Day is a Saturday, the legal holiday for Rule 6 purposes is Friday 3 July. A period ending that Friday runs through the weekend to Monday the 6th. The tool lists the holidays for the relevant year as observed, and marks any that were shifted.
Why does the tool ignore the state holidays I entered on a backward deadline?
Because Rule 6(a)(6)(C) says to. It reaches "any other day declared a holiday by the state where the district court is located", but only "for periods that are measured after an event".
A state holiday therefore extends a response deadline and has no effect at all on a period counted backward from a hearing. This is obscure, it is easy to apply symmetrically by mistake, and it changes answers.
Days declared by the President or Congress under Rule 6(a)(6)(B) are not limited that way, and they do count backward. Because only you know which kind a day is, the holiday box asks: pick Rule 6(a)(6)(C), declared by the state or Rule 6(a)(6)(B), declared by the President or Congress. The tool then applies the days accordingly and says in the result which way it went.
Can I rely on this for an actual filing?
Use it as a cross-check, not as your docket. It computes the federal default and it cannot see your case.
Three things routinely override the default and none of them are visible to a calculator: local rules of the district, a judge’s standing order, and the scheduling order in your case. Rule 6(a)(3) also extends a deadline when the clerk’s office was inaccessible on the last day, which is a fact about your court rather than a calculation.
That is why the output is a worked audit trail rather than a bare date, and why every result carries those cautions. Check the working, then check your local rules. This is not legal advice and no attorney-client relationship arises from using it.
Does this work for state court deadlines?
No. It implements the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, for United States district courts, and nothing else.
State counting rules differ in ways that matter. Some states exclude weekends from short periods, the way the federal rule did before 2009. Some count from filing rather than from service. Some have their own holiday lists and their own service extensions.
Feeding a state deadline into a federal calculator is how a date goes wrong quietly. If you need a state period, use that state’s rule of civil procedure.
Notes and sources
This is not legal advice. It is arithmetic on published procedural rules. No attorney-client relationship arises from using it, and it is not a substitute for checking the rule, your local rules and the orders in your case. Verify any date before you rely on it.
Rules implemented: FRCP 6(a)(1) to 6(a)(6) and 6(d) for the counting; FRCP 6(c)(1), 6(c)(2), 12(a)(1), 12(a)(2), 33(b)(2), 34(b)(2)(A), 59(b) and 59(e), and FRAP 4(a)(1), for the preset periods. Every preset figure was read from the rule it cites rather than recalled, and each preset shows its citation in the tool.
Holidays: 5 U.S.C. 6103(a) for the eleven federal holidays, 6103(b) for the Saturday observance, and section 3(a) of Executive Order 11582 for the Sunday observance. Juneteenth National Independence Day is treated as federal from 2021, when Public Law 117-17 was signed, so a historical computation before that year is not given an extra holiday it did not have.
The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure, the United States Code and executive orders are all United States government works. Nothing here is licensed from anybody and no rule text is reproduced beyond the short quotations needed to say what the tool does.
Counting runs entirely in your browser. No date you type is sent anywhere. Tell me if a result disagrees with your own computation, and say which rule you are applying.