A court day is a day the court is open for business. Saturdays, Sundays and the court’s own holidays are not court days. When a statute says “16 court days before the hearing,” you count only days the court is open, and you count backward from the hearing without counting the hearing day itself.
This tool counts in either unit. Choose California: court days before a hearing for the counts that appear throughout the California Code of Civil Procedure, or one of the calendar-day options to count back from a federal, California or Texas hearing date.
Which systems count in court days
| Court system | Unit used for most periods | When court days come in |
|---|---|---|
| California superior courts | Calendar days (Code Civ. Proc. § 12) | Many motion statutes are written in court days — 16, 9 and 5 court days under § 1005(b) — and electronic, overnight and fax service add court days |
| Federal courts | Calendar days for every period since (FRCP 6(a)) | Never; weekends and holidays matter only when the last day falls on one |
| Texas courts | Calendar days (TRCP 4) | Periods of five days or less skip Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays, so they behave like business-day counts |
The practical consequence: a California court-day count crosses every holiday in the period, while a federal count looks only at the last day.
Counting back from a hearing
California Code of Civil Procedure § 12c sets the method for “before the hearing” periods: start with the day before the hearing and count backward, leaving the hearing day out. In court-day counts, each day the court is closed is simply passed over.
Hearing date: · 16 days
- Count 16 court days before , skipping 8 weekend days, Day after Thanksgiving (), Thanksgiving Day (), Veterans Day (): .
Deadline:
Notice what moved the date: Thanksgiving, the day after Thanksgiving and Veterans Day all sit inside the period. A count that skipped only weekends would land on November 13, three days too late to give 16 court days’ notice.
Holidays that change court-day counts in 2027
California’s judicial calendar has dates that general-purpose calculators routinely miss:
- Farmworkers Day moved. From 2027 the holiday falls on April 10 (SB 1394, Stats. 2026, ch. 708). Because is a Saturday, courts close on Friday, April 9 under California Rules of Court, rule 1.11.
- New Year’s Day 2028 is observed in 2027. is a Saturday, so courts close .
- Lincoln’s Birthday (February 12) and Native American Day are court holidays in California even though federal courts are open.
Hearing date: · 10 days
- Count 10 calendar days before (that day is not counted): .
- is not a court day (Farmworkers Day (observed)), so the deadline moves back to .
Deadline:
Starting date: · 3 days
- Count 3 court days after , skipping 2 weekend days, New Year's Day 2028 (observed) (): .
Deadline:
The full list, with download links for your calendar, is on the 2027 court holidays page.
Texas: short periods count only business days
Texas Rule 4 excludes Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays from any period of five days or less, so a short period counted back from a Monday hearing passes over the weekend before it. The three-day notice of a hearing under Rule 21(b) is the unsettled case: Rule 4 counts weekends in “the three-day periods in Rules 21 and 21a,” so the hearing-notice option on the Texas calculator shows both the business-day and the calendar-day count.
Hearing date: · 1 days
- Count 1 court day before , skipping 2 weekend days, New Year's Day (): . (Periods of 5 days or less exclude weekends and legal holidays.)
Deadline:
Federal hearings: calendar days, moved earlier
Federal notice periods are counted in calendar days back from the hearing. Rule 6(c)(1) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, for example, requires a written motion and notice of the hearing to be served at least 14 days before the hearing. If the 14th day back lands on a weekend or a federal holiday, Rule 6(a)(5) moves it to the next earlier day — the opposite of a forward period. State holidays play no part in a backward federal count, even in a court that honors them for forward periods. Choose Federal civil: days before an event to count this way.
How this compares with the Los Angeles Superior Court calculator
The Los Angeles Superior Court publishes its own Court Date Calculator, and if your case is in Los Angeles County its count is the court’s own. That tool counts court days only, and its calendar currently runs through December 2030. This calculator adds calendar-day counting under § 12c, other court systems, a record of every skipped day, and alternative dates where the rule is unclear. It does not add service-method days to a plain court-day count — use the California motion deadline calculator when the notice period depends on how the papers are served.
Questions about counting court days
What are court days in California?
Days the court is open for business: every day except Saturdays, Sundays and judicial holidays. A court-day count passes over each closed day in the period, not only the last one, so a holiday in the middle of the count pushes the date further out (Code Civ. Proc. § 135).
Is the hearing day counted when you count court days back?
No. The count starts with the day before the hearing and runs backward, leaving the hearing day itself out. Each closed day is skipped, so 16 court days before a hearing is Tuesday, November 10, once Veterans Day, Thanksgiving and the day after are passed over (Code Civ. Proc. § 12c).
When is Farmworkers Day in 2027?
, so California courts close on Friday, April 9 and a court-day count passes over that Friday. SB 1394 (Stats. 2026, ch. 708) set the new date, and a holiday that falls on a Saturday is observed by the courts on the Friday before (Cal. Rules of Court, rule 1.11).
Are California courts closed on December 31, 2027?
Yes. New Year’s Day 2028 falls on a Saturday, so California courts observe it on , and a court-day count treats that Friday as a closed day. The closure is already in this calculator’s California calendar, so you do not need to enter it yourself (Cal. Rules of Court, rule 1.11).
Does a court closure for bad weather count as a holiday in California?
Yes, if the court was closed for the whole day. Code of Civil Procedure § 12b treats such a day as a holiday, so enter it as a closed day and the count will pass over it. Check your court’s website or local rules for closures the statewide calendar does not list (Code Civ. Proc. § 12b).
Before relying on a court-day count
Courts occasionally close for a day the statewide calendar does not list — a weather emergency, a facility problem, a local holiday. Code of Civil Procedure § 12b treats a day the court is closed for the whole day as a holiday. Enter any such day under Was the court closed on a day in the period? and check your court’s website or local rules for closures. For the difference between the two units in more depth, read court days vs. calendar days.