Legal Deadline Calculator (Court Days)

About the Legal Deadline Calculator (Court Days)

A deadline in a court rule or a statute is rarely just “date + N days”. Is the day of the event counted? Do weekends count? What if the last day is a holiday — and does a deadline counted back from a hearing move earlier or later? The answers differ from one legal system to the next, and a single day can lose a case.

Pick the system — India (General Clauses Act ss.9 and 10, Limitation Act s.4), United States federal courts (Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 6(a)), England & Wales (Civil Procedure Rules r.2.8, clear days) or the European Union (Regulation 1182/71) — enter the trigger date and the period, and the calculator counts it the way that system does. It knows the US federal holidays, the England and Wales bank holidays and India’s national holidays, takes your court’s own closed days, shows each step with the rule behind it and every day of the count, and exports the deadline to your calendar as an .ics file. Everything runs in your browser.

Common uses

• A lawyer or paralegal diarising the last day to file a response, appeal or application, with the steps to show a colleague.
• Working out the last day to serve a notice that must be given a number of clear days before a hearing or meeting.
• Checking a deadline someone else calculated, day by day, including weekends and holidays.
• Putting a deadline, with reminders, into an office or phone calendar.

How each system counts

• India. “From” excludes the first day and “to” includes the last (General Clauses Act s.9); a month is a calendar month (s.3(35)). If the court or office is closed on the last day, the act may be done on the next day it opens (s.10) — for suits, appeals and applications under the Limitation Act, s.4 of that Act says the same, and a court closed for any part of its normal working hours counts as closed. For a deadline before an event, choose clear days when the law says “clear days” or “not less than”: neither the day you act nor the day of the event counts.
• United States (federal courts). Exclude the day of the event, count every day including weekends and holidays, include the last day — and if it is a Saturday, Sunday or legal holiday, run to the next day that is not one; for periods counted back from an event, “next” means earlier (FRCP 6(a)(1), (5)). Periods in hours start at once, and an end on a weekend or holiday moves to the same time the next day (6(a)(2)). After service by mail, by leaving the paper with the clerk or by other consented means, add 3 days after the period would otherwise end (6(d)).
• England & Wales. Periods in days are clear days: the day the period begins is not counted, and neither is the day of an event that ends it (CPR r.2.8(3)). In periods of 5 days or less, Saturdays, Sundays, bank holidays, Christmas Day and Good Friday do not count (r.2.8(4)). An act at the court office due on a day the office is closed is in time on the next day it is open (r.2.8(5)); a month is a calendar month (r.2.10). A document delivered or emailed on a day that is not a business day, or after 4.30 p.m., counts as served on the next business day (r.6.26), so the calculator also shows the last business day to serve when a deadline falls on a weekend or bank holiday.
• European Union. The day (or hour) of the event is not counted (Art. 3(1)); weeks, months and years end on the same weekday or date, or on the last day of a month that has no such date (Art. 3(2)(c)). If the last day is a public holiday, Saturday or Sunday the period ends with the next working day — but not for hours, and not for periods counted back from an event (Art. 3(4)) — and any period of two days or more must include at least two working days (Art. 3(5)).

Holidays the calculator knows — and the ones you add

For the United States it uses the legal public holidays of 5 U.S.C. 6103 — New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King Jr.’s Birthday, Washington’s Birthday, Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas — on the day each is observed when it falls on a weekend. For England & Wales it uses the bank holidays published by GOV.UK, including one-off changes such as the 2022 Platinum Jubilee; for India, Republic Day, Independence Day and Gandhi Jayanti, with your choice of Saturday rule.

Add the rest yourself, one per line or as ranges (2026-12-21 to 2027-01-01): your Indian court’s holidays and vacations, the US state holidays of the state where the district court sits (they count only for periods counted forward, FRCP 6(a)(6)(C)) and days the clerk’s office was inaccessible, or the public holidays of the EU Member State or institution where the act is to be done (Reg. 1182/71 Art. 2(1)).

Within, before and at least after

• Within N days after an event gives the last day to act, counted forward.
• At least N days before an event (a hearing, a meeting) gives the last day to act, counted back. Such a deadline is never moved later: in the US the “next day” is found by counting backward (FRCP 6(a)(5)); the EU regulation does not move it at all (Art. 3(4)); in India and England & Wales the calculator tells you to act on the last open day before it.
• At least N days after gives the earliest date something may happen — in England & Wales with clear days, so a hearing at least 28 days after notice given on 1 October can be on 30 October at the earliest (CPR r.2.8, example (ii)).

Sources

• General Clauses Act, 1897 — ss.3(35), 9, 10
• Limitation Act, 1963 — ss.4, 12
• Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, Rule 6, with its Committee Notes; 5 U.S.C. 6103 and OPM’s federal holiday schedules — legal public holidays and the days they are observed
• Civil Procedure Rules, Part 2 — rr.2.1, 2.8, 2.10, and Part 6 — rr.6.2, 6.26; UK bank holidays
• Regulation (EEC, Euratom) No 1182/71 — Arts. 2–5

Limitations

• An estimate, not legal advice. A statute, local rule or court order can set its own method of counting or a fixed date — that always comes first (FRCP 6(a) applies only where none does).
• It does not know your court’s own holidays and vacations, US state holidays or EU Member State holidays: add them, or a deadline may fall on one.
• A day the US President or Congress declares a holiday (FRCP 6(a)(6)(B)) is not in the built-in list. Add it to the closed days; days you add count only for periods counted forward, so check a deadline counted back from an event by hand.
• Periods in hours are counted for US federal and EU rules only; the General Clauses Act and CPR r.2.8 have no rule for hours.
• England & Wales covers the Civil Procedure Rules (civil proceedings in the County Court, High Court and Court of Appeal, Civil Division); family, insolvency and criminal proceedings have their own rules. Regulation 1182/71 governs time limits in EU acts — a deadline in a national court follows that country’s law.
• When a document is deemed served is not worked out for you, except the England and Wales serve-by date: enter the date the period actually starts — for a document served on you, the day it counts as served.

Privacy

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