Tools · Civil procedure

Court deadline calculator

A period of time expressed in days is counted in clear days, and when the period is five days or fewer the weekend stops counting. This works the date out under CPR 2.8 and shows you every day it counted, so you can check it rather than trust it.

England & Wales · free, and nothing you type leaves your browser

What does the rule or order say?Particulars of claim within 14 days of service of the claim form.

Number of daysFive or fewer, and weekends and bank holidays stop counting.

Date of the eventService, notice, or whatever starts the clock.

The act has to be done at the court officeApplies CPR 2.8(5), which carries a deadline falling on a day the office is closed to the next day it is open. It does not apply to service on another party.

Enter a date to work out the deadline.

What the rule says

CPR 2.8 governs any period for doing an act specified by the rules, by a practice direction, or by a judgment or order. Four things follow from it, and the third is the one most often missed.

Days means clear days. The day the period begins does not count, and where the period ends on an event, the day of that event does not count either.
Five days or fewer, and the weekend drops out. Saturdays, Sundays, bank holidays, Christmas Day and Good Friday do not count at all under CPR 2.8(4). For longer periods they count normally.
The court office rule is narrower than it looks. CPR 2.8(5) carries a deadline that falls on a day the office is closed to the next day it is open, but only for an act done at the court office. Service on another party is not that, so do not assume a Saturday deadline becomes Monday.
An order should give a calendar date. Under CPR 2.9 the last date for compliance must, wherever practicable, be a calendar date with a time of day. If yours is not, this is how you work it out.

Bank holidays from the gov.uk list for England and Wales, covering 2019 to 2028, loaded from gov.uk. Dates outside those years are refused rather than estimated.

Primary sources

The rule text this tool is built from, and the calculation is tested against the four worked examples printed in the rule itself.

This is a calculation, not advice. It applies CPR 2.8 to the dates you enter. It does not know what your order says, whether a different rule sets a different period, or whether time has been extended. Check the order.

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Where the decision actually gets made when a deadline has already gone, and the real limits of a CPR 3.8(4) buffer agreement.

Costs and funding

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An approved budget covers less than most receiving parties assume, and a CPR 3.15A revision has to be prompt.