Arizona court deadline calculator

Arizona restyled its Rules of Civil Procedure on the federal model effective January 1, 2017, but it kept two features the federal rules had abandoned: a business-day rule for short periods, and extra days for every kind of service except handing the paper over. Rule 6(a) applies to any period “specified in these rules or in any local rule, court order, or statute”, so it reaches statutory periods such as the 35 days for judicial review of an agency decision as well as rule periods. The day of the event is excluded, the last day is included, and a last day that is a Saturday, Sunday or legal holiday runs to the next day that is none of those.

Less than eleven days means business days

Rule 6(a)(2) excludes intermediate Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays “if the period is less than 11 days”. The 10-day response to a motion under Rule 7.1(a)(3), the 5-day reply, the 10 days after an application for entry of default and the 10 days to plead after a Rule 12 motion is denied are all counted in business days; the 15-day post-trial motions, the 20-day answer and the 30-day summary-judgment response count every day. The Justice Court Rules of Civil Procedure copy the threshold in Rule 115(a)(2), and the Court of Appeals publishes a due-date guide that tells self-represented parties to use the “Business Days Rule” for ten days or less. A 10-day period that starts the Friday before Thanksgiving therefore ends more than two weeks later.

Five days after the roll, for mail and e-filing alike

Rule 6(c) adds five calendar days when a party must act within a specified time after service and the service was made under Rule 5(c)(2)(C), (D) or (E): by U.S. mail, by e-mail or another method the recipient consented to in writing, or by transmission through the court’s electronic filing service provider. Only handing the paper to the person, or leaving it at an office or dwelling, adds nothing. The days are added “after the specified period would otherwise expire under Rule 6(a)”, so the calculator moves the last day off a weekend or holiday first and only then counts five more days, which may land on a weekend and move again; the 2011 committee comment works through exactly that sequence. Nothing is added to a period that runs from a court-generated document, such as the clerk’s notice of entry of judgment, or to the 10 days after an application for default.

Appellate counting differs on electronic service

ARCAP 5(a) applies Civil Rule 6(a) and 6(c) in the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court “except for electronically served documents”, an amendment effective January 1, 2017 that removed the five days for e-service in the appellate courts. An answering brief served electronically is due 40 days after service; served by mail, 45. The notice of appeal runs 30 days from entry of the judgment and gets no added days however the judgment reached the appellant, a cross-appeal has 20 days from the first notice, a motion for reconsideration 15 days from the decision and a petition for review 30 days. The calculator offers the appellate periods as a separate counting rule so that the service question is answered the appellate way.

Ten statutory holidays, observed by a fixed rule

A.R.S. § 1-301 names the holidays, and because several of them are tied to Sundays by the statute itself, only ten can fall on a weekday: New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King, Jr./Civil Rights Day, Lincoln/Washington Presidents’ Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day, Veterans’ Day, Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day. Subsection B observes a Sunday holiday on the following Monday and subsection C observes a Saturday New Year’s Day, Independence Day, Veterans’ Day or Christmas on the preceding Friday, so Christmas 2027 falls on Friday, December 24, and New Year’s Day 2028 on Friday, December 31, 2027. Because the dates follow from the statute rather than an annual order, the 2026, 2027 and 2028 lists here are computed from it and were checked against the Maricopa County Superior Court’s published schedule. That schedule stays open on Columbus Day and closes the day after Thanksgiving; neither local choice changes a legal holiday, so a deadline on Columbus Day moves and one on the Friday after Thanksgiving does not.

Periods counted backward from a trial date

Rule 6(a)(4) says the “next day” is found by counting backward when a period is measured before an event, so Arizona is one of the few states whose rule settles the direction of the roll: a deadline that lands on a weekend or holiday moves earlier. An offer of judgment must be made more than 30 days before trial begins (Rule 68(a)(1)), a summary-judgment motion no later than 90 days before the trial date absent a court-set deadline (Rule 56(b)(3)), a written stipulation waiving a jury no later than 30 days before trial (Rule 38(b)), and notice of a default-judgment hearing at least 3 days before the hearing (Rule 55(b)(1)(C)). The short-period rule applies to the three-day notice, which is counted in business days.

Eviction and statutory periods in calendar days

Some Arizona periods are stated in calendar days and sit outside Rule 6(a)(2). Rule 3(a) of the Rules of Procedure for Eviction Actions says the periods in those rules “shall mean calendar days”; A.R.S. § 12-1179 allows an appeal from a justice-court eviction judgment within five calendar days and § 12-1178 bars a writ of restitution until five calendar days after judgment; and § 33-1368(G) says that for the landlord’s ten-day and five-day notices “days” means calendar days. For these the calculator counts every day and moves a last day that falls on a weekend or legal holiday to the next business day. A.R.S. § 1-243, the general statutory computation rule, excludes only a last day that is a “holiday”, a word that under § 1-301 includes every Sunday but not Saturday, so whether a Saturday last day truly moves to Monday outside the court rules is an open question recorded in the verification notes; acting on the Friday is always safe.

What the Arizona calculator does not cover

The counting rules were read in the Arizona Supreme Court’s rule orders on azcourts.gov and the statutes on azleg.gov on November 9, 2026, and the current text of each civil rule was checked against a copy of the rules because the official Westlaw rules site blocks automated reading; the counting rules and every named deadline were reviewed by an attorney. The superior court’s e-filing time-of-day rule, local rules, the Superior Court Rules of Appellate Procedure for justice-court appeals and the family, probate and juvenile rules are not covered.

Questions about Arizona deadlines

How many days do you have to answer a complaint in Arizona?

Twenty days after service of the summons and complaint in the superior court and in the justice courts, with nothing added for the way the summons was served (Ariz. R. Civ. P. 12(a)(1)(A); JCRCP 114(a)). A defendant served outside Arizona or by publication has 30 days under Rule 4.2, and a Rule 12 motion postpones the answer until 10 days after notice of the ruling.

Does Arizona count weekends in short deadlines?

Not when the period is less than 11 days. Rule 6(a)(2) excludes intermediate Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays from such periods, so the 10-day response to a motion and the 5-day reply are counted in business days. Periods of 11 days or more count every day; the federal rule that Arizona otherwise copied in 2017 has counted every day since 2009.

Does e-filing service add five days in Arizona?

In the superior court, yes. Rule 6(c) adds five calendar days when service was made under Rule 5(c)(2)(C), (D) or (E), which cover U.S. mail, consented electronic or other means, and transmission through the court’s electronic filing service provider; only hand delivery and leaving the paper at an office or dwelling add nothing. In the Court of Appeals and Supreme Court the opposite is true: ARCAP 5(a) excludes electronically served documents from the five days.

Is Columbus Day a court holiday in Arizona?

It is a legal holiday under A.R.S. § 1-301, the second Monday in October, so a deadline that lands on it runs to Tuesday. The Court of Appeals closes that day; the Judicial Branch in Maricopa County stays open and instead closes the day after Thanksgiving, which is not a § 1-301 holiday and does not move a deadline.

What is the deadline to appeal a civil judgment in Arizona?

Thirty days after entry of the judgment, by filing a notice of appeal in the superior court (ARCAP 9(a)); a cross-appeal is due 20 days after the first notice or 30 days after the judgment, whichever is later. A timely motion under Rule 50(b), 52(b) or 59, or a Rule 60 motion filed within 15 days of judgment, restarts the 30 days from the order deciding it. Neither court may extend the time, except by reopening it for 14 days when a party received no notice of the judgment within 21 days.

When is a motion for new trial due in Arizona?

No later than 15 days after entry of the judgment, and the court may not extend that deadline by stipulation or order except as Rule 6(b)(2) allows for a party who did not receive notice of the judgment (Rule 59(b)(1)). The renewed motion for judgment as a matter of law, the motion to amend findings and the motion to alter or amend the judgment share the same 15 days (Rules 50(b), 52(b), 59(d)). Fifteen days is more than ten, so weekends count.