Ask anyone who calendars what mail service does to a deadline, and you’ll hear that it adds five days. Ask what happens when the last day is a Saturday, and you’ll hear Monday. Both are right for a discovery response. On a motion, both can make you late.
Motion deadlines run the other way. Section 1005(b) requires moving papers to be “served and filed at least 16 court days before the hearing.” You count those days back from the hearing, then keep going back for any days your service method adds.
Every correction moves the last day earlier.
Count court days on the court’s calendar
Don’t count the hearing day. Section 12c(a) says to count “backward from the hearing date, excluding the day of the hearing,” so day one is the last court day before it. For a Monday hearing, that’s usually the Friday before. From there, skip weekends and court holidays, and take the holidays from the courts’ own list.
California courts close on four days that federal calendars treat as workdays: Lincoln’s Birthday (February 12), Farmworkers Day (March 31, called Cesar Chavez Day until the Legislature renamed it in March 2026), Native American Day (the fourth Friday in September) and the day after Thanksgiving. They stay open on Columbus Day, a federal holiday, and on Lunar New Year and Diwali, state holidays that section 135 excludes from the court list.
A holiday that falls on a weekend can still close the courthouse on a weekday. Section 135 lets the Judicial Council designate another day to observe it. In 2026, Independence Day fell on a Saturday and the courts closed Friday, July 3. In 2027, Juneteenth and Christmas fall on Saturdays and Independence Day on a Sunday. Count with the Judicial Council’s published holiday schedule, and nothing else.
Then add the service days, and check the unit
Section 12c(b) counts the service days back from the 16th court day. The method of service sets the number of days. Check the unit too, because some methods add court days and others add calendar days.
| Service method | Added to the 16 court days | Source |
| Personal delivery | Nothing | CCP 1005(b) |
| E-service | 2 court days; none from Jan. 1, 2027 | CCP 1010.6(a)(3)(B) |
| Fax, express mail or overnight delivery | 2 calendar days | CCP 1005(b) |
| Mail within California | 5 calendar days | CCP 1005(b) |
| Mail with one end outside California | 10 calendar days (20 outside the U.S.) | CCP 1005(b) |
| Mail to a Safe at Home address | 12 calendar days | CCP 1005(b) |
The two “2 days” rows are not the same two days. Court days skip weekends and holidays. Calendar days don’t. When the 16th court day is a Monday, e-service backs up to Thursday and overnight delivery only to Saturday. Summary judgment flips the units: section 437c(a)(2) counts its 81-day notice period in calendar days but gives overnight delivery two court days.
The added days apply to service. The filing deadline stays at 16 court days.
When a count lands on a weekend, go back
A court-day count never lands on a weekend. A calendar-day count often does. Section 12a(a) treats every Saturday and Sunday as a holiday, and when the last day falls on one, the period is “extended to and including the next day that is not a holiday.” For a deadline that runs forward from service, that settles it, and in your favor. On a count that runs back from a hearing, the next court day is closer to the hearing, and moving to it cuts into the notice the count was supposed to give.
The federal rules answer the question directly. Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 6(a)(5) says the “next day” is found by counting forward when a period runs after an event and “backward when measured before an event.” California’s timing statutes, sections 12 through 12c, have no equivalent sentence. Section 12a(b) also applies 12a to “all other provisions of law providing or requiring an act to be performed on a particular day,” so you will see it read the other way. Take the reading that can’t be short. When a backward count lands on a weekend or holiday, treat the court day before as your deadline.
E-service counts on the day you send it
Under section 1010.6(a)(4), a document e-served “between 12:00 a.m. and 11:59:59 p.m. on a court day” is deemed served that day. One e-served on a noncourt day is deemed served on the next court day. A Thursday deadline can be met at 11:30 Thursday night. The same papers sent Saturday morning count as served Monday.
One hearing, four deadlines
Take a hearing on Thursday, December 17, 2026. Counting back from it, Thanksgiving and the Friday after drop out, so the 16th court day is Monday, November 23. That is the filing deadline for every method and the service deadline for personal delivery. From Monday the 23rd:
- E-service: two court days back, Thursday, November 19.
- Overnight delivery: two calendar days back is Saturday the 21st, so Friday, November 20.
- Mail within California: five calendar days back, Wednesday, November 18.
E-service, the fastest way to get papers to the other side, has the earliest deadline of anything but mail. And software that treats the day after Thanksgiving as a workday puts the e-service deadline on Friday the 20th. Serve that day and the December 17 hearing is a court day short.
What changes January 1
Three bills take effect January 1, 2027, and the first one changes the table above.
E-service stops adding time. AB 540 (Stats. 2026, ch. 263) rewrites section 1010.6 without its two-court-day extension, and it adds “excluding electronic service” to the overnight clauses in sections 1005(b) and 437c(a)(2). For motion papers e-served on or after January 1, the deadline is the 16th court day, the same as personal delivery, and any other deadline that picked up two court days from e-service loses them. The switch cuts both ways in the first weeks. If you e-serve in December for a January hearing, count the two court days anyway. If you’re answering in January something that was e-served in December, don’t count on them.
Substituted service gets harder. Under AB 747 (Stats. 2025, ch. 563), a party shows reasonable diligence by attempting personal delivery “on at least three occasions on three different days at three different times” (section 415.20(b)(2)). Once a defendant offers evidence that service failed, new section 473.2 makes the party who took the default prove it was lawful. Service is still “deemed complete on the 10th day after the mailing,” so the response date doesn’t move.
A statement of decision has to be requested before the case is submitted. Under AB 515 (Stats. 2025, ch. 559), the request comes “prior to the submission of the matter for decision” (section 632(a)), not within 10 days of the tentative, and judgment after a court trial is entered within 30 days of the decision, or of a final statement of decision, instead of immediately (section 664(b)).
Before you rely on the date
- Start at the reserved hearing date. Day one is the last court day before it.
- Count 16 court days on the Judicial Council’s holiday schedule. That day is also your filing deadline.
- Add the service method’s days from there, in the unit the statute uses. From January 1, 2027, e-service adds none.
- If a calendar-day count lands on a weekend or holiday, move to the court day before.
- E-serve by 11:59 p.m. on a court day. Papers e-served on a weekend count as served the next court day.
- If the hearing moves, recount from the new date. Shifting the old deadlines by the same number of days can walk them across a holiday.
This article describes California civil procedure as of September 2026, including the changes that take effect January 1, 2027. It is general information, not legal advice. Statutes, rules of court, the court holiday schedule and local practice change, so check the current text and your court’s local rules before relying on a date.
Categorized in: Legal Procedure
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