Free Legal Deadline Calculator
Pick a trigger date, an offset, a counting unit, and a jurisdiction to get an FRCP Rule 6(a) compliant deadline — including the exact weekend/holiday reasoning.
Have a full scheduling order? Extract every deadline automatically.
Extract My Deadlines →How FRCP Rule 6(a) counting works
Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 6(a) sets the default method for counting a deadline that is measured in days from a triggering event — for example, "30 days after service." Most state court rules follow a similar approach, though you should always confirm this with your own court's rules. The method has three parts:
- Exclude the trigger day. The day the triggering event happens — the day of service, the day of the order, the day of the hearing — does not count as day one. Counting starts the next day.
- Count every day for calendar-day deadlines. When a deadline is stated in calendar days, every day counts, including intermediate Saturdays, Sundays, and court holidays.
- Roll the final day forward if the court is closed. If the last day of the period lands on a Saturday, Sunday, or a day the court has declared a legal holiday, the deadline moves to the next day the court is open.
Calendar days vs. business days vs. court days
This calculator supports three ways a deadline can be measured:
- Calendar days count every day on the calendar, weekends and holidays included. Only the final day gets rolled forward if it falls on a day the court is closed.
- Business days and court days count only the days the selected court is open, skipping both weekends and that court's holidays as you count. Some rules use the two terms interchangeably; this calculator counts them the same way, against the holiday calendar of the jurisdiction you select.
Because business-day and court-day counting already skips non-open days as it goes, the last day of the period always lands on a day the court is open — there is no separate "roll forward" step for those units the way there is for calendar days.
How state court calendars differ from federal
Federal courts observe one set of legal holidays. State courts often observe some of the same holidays, plus a few of their own — for example, California courts also observe Cesar Chavez Day and the day after Thanksgiving, which are not federal holidays. The reverse is also true: a federal-only holiday, such as Columbus Day, does not roll a state-court deadline, because that court isn't closed that day.
This tool resolves the jurisdiction you select to the correct holiday calendar and names it plainly in the result (for example, "California court calendar" or "federal court calendar") so you can see exactly which set of holidays was applied.
Not legal advice
This is not legal advice — always verify against the rules of your court.
Local rules, standing orders, and individual judges' practices can change how deadlines are counted, including which holidays apply and whether a given deadline is even subject to Rule 6(a) at all. Treat this calculator as a starting point, not a substitute for checking the applicable rules yourself.