New Jersey counts time under Rule 1:3-1 of the Rules of Court, and the result is familiar: exclude the day of the event, include the last day, and when the last day is a Saturday, Sunday or legal holiday run the period to the next day that is none of those. Two features set the state apart. Periods of less than seven days skip the intermediate weekends and holidays, as the federal rules did before 2009, and service by ordinary mail adds five days rather than the three most jurisdictions allow.
Short periods and the five mail days
A four-day reply period counted back from a motion return date, a five-day period under the appellate rules, a three-day landlord’s notice: each is under seven days, so the Saturdays, Sundays and holidays inside it are excluded and only business days count. Periods of seven days or more count every day and look only at the last one. Rule 1:3-3 then adds five days when the notice or paper was served by ordinary mail. The rule said three days until ; older forms and summaries still say three. Nothing is added for service through eCourts or by e-mail, for hand delivery, or for certified mail without an ordinary-mail copy, and the answer period runs from service of process with no addition at all.
Date of service: · 20 days · Ordinary mail (5 days added)
- Count 20 calendar days after (that day is not counted): .
- Ordinary mail (5 days added) adds time. Count 5 calendar days after (that day is not counted): .
- is not a court day (Day after Thanksgiving (yearly order; projected)), so the deadline moves forward to , passing (Saturday), (Sunday).
Deadline:
The holiday list comes from a court order
Each summer the Supreme Court enters an order naming the legal holidays for the coming court year in the trial divisions of the Superior Court and the Tax Court. The orders follow the statute, N.J.S.A. 36:1-1: Good Friday and General Election Day are holidays, Juneteenth is the third Friday in June, a Saturday holiday is observed on the Friday before and a Sunday holiday on the Monday after. Lincoln’s Birthday is in the statute but state offices stay open and the orders omit it, so the calculator shows a deadline landing on February 12 as due that day, with the next business day as an alternative. The Friday after Thanksgiving is added by a separate order every November; the three days of Judicial College before Thanksgiving and the recess between Christmas and New Year’s close the courts for all but emergent matters without being holidays.
Date of service: · 35 days · The summons and complaint (process): no days added
- Count 35 calendar days after (that day is not counted): .
- The summons and complaint (process): no days added adds no extra days.
- is not a court day (General Election Day), so the deadline moves forward to .
Deadline:
Motion practice counted back from the return date
New Jersey motions are timed from a return date rather than from service. The notice of motion is due at least 16 days before the return date, opposition and any cross-motion at least 8 days before, and a reply at least 4 days before (R. 1:6-3). Summary-judgment motions run 28, 10 and 4 days and must be returnable no later than 30 days before the scheduled trial (R. 4:46-1). Service of motion papers is complete only on receipt, and mailed papers are presumed received on the third business day after mailing (R. 1:6-3(c), which the 2022 amendment to R. 1:3-3 did not change), so a mailed motion must go out earlier than the sixteenth day. Which way a weekend or holiday moves one of these backward dates is undecided; the calculator moves it earlier, which can never be late, and applies the short-period rule to the four-day reply.
Return date of the motion, or the trial date: · 4 days
- Count 4 court days before , skipping 2 weekend days, Good Friday (): . (Periods of 6 days or less exclude weekends and legal holidays.)
Deadline:
Periods the court cannot enlarge
A motion for a new trial must be served within 20 days after the verdict or the court’s decision, and a motion for reconsideration within 20 days after service of the judgment or order (R. 4:49-1, 4:49-2). Rule 1:3-4(c) forbids the court from enlarging either period, or the one year for relief from a judgment under R. 4:50-2, or the 30 days for demanding a trial de novo after arbitration (R. 4:21A-6). The calculator marks these as hard deadlines; whether the five mail days reach a non-enlargeable period that runs from service is one of the open questions recorded with this page.
Return date of the motion, or the trial date: · 28 days
- Count 28 calendar days before (that day is not counted): .
- is not a court day (Good Friday), so the deadline moves back to .
Deadline:
Appeals in 45 days
A notice of appeal from a final judgment is due 45 days after its entry, and the Appellate Division may extend that by at most 30 days on a showing of good cause and the absence of prejudice (R. 2:4-1, 2:4-4). A cross-appeal is due 15 days after service of the notice of appeal. A timely motion for a new trial, for reconsideration or for relief from the judgment tolls the appeal period, and the remaining time runs again from the order deciding the motion, which is narrower than the federal rule’s fresh 30 days. Petitions for certification to the Supreme Court follow within 20 days of the Appellate Division’s judgment.
Date of service: · 4 days · eCourts or e-mail (no days added)
- Count 4 court days after , skipping 4 weekend days, Thanksgiving Day (), Day after Thanksgiving (yearly order; projected) (): . (Periods of 6 days or less exclude weekends and legal holidays.)
- eCourts or e-mail (no days added) adds no extra days.
Deadline:
What the New Jersey calculator leaves open
The counting rules, the motion, post-trial and appeal periods on this page and N.J.S.A. 36:1-1 were checked against the Judiciary’s Rules of Court database on njcourts.gov (amendments through ) and the Legislature’s statute database on , the holiday orders were read in the Judiciary’s own documents, and the counting rules and every named deadline were reviewed by an attorney. The remaining discovery and appellate periods were matched against the same Rules of Court database the next day, which showed the reply-brief period at 14 days and the former R. 2:12-5 deposit deleted in 2022. The calculator does not know the trial courts’ eCourts time-of-day cutoff, which no text read states, the Family Part and Chancery periods, or the discovery end dates that a case management order sets.
Questions about New Jersey deadlines
How many days do you have to answer a complaint in New Jersey?
Thirty-five days after service of the summons and complaint in the Superior Court’s Law and Chancery Divisions, and 35 days after completion of service in the Special Civil Part. A counterclaim or crossclaim also requires an answer within 35 days (N.J. Ct. R. 4:6-1(a), 6:3-1).
How many days does mail service add in New Jersey?
Five days, when a notice or paper is served by ordinary mail, added to the period before the weekend rule is applied (N.J. Ct. R. 1:3-3, as amended effective ). Service through eCourts, by e-mail, by hand or by certified mail alone adds nothing, and nothing is added to the answer period.
When are motion papers due in New Jersey?
The notice of motion must be filed and served at least 16 days before the return date, opposition at least 8 days before and a reply at least 4 days before (N.J. Ct. R. 1:6-3(a)). Summary-judgment motions use 28, 10 and 4 days and must be returnable no later than 30 days before the trial date (R. 4:46-1).
Is the day after Thanksgiving a court holiday in New Jersey?
By yearly order, yes. The statute does not list it, but each year the Supreme Court declares the Friday after Thanksgiving a court recess day that is ‘deemed the same as a legal holiday’ for computing time under the rules and statutes of limitation; the 2026 order was not yet issued when this page was checked, so the date is shown as projected.
What is the deadline to appeal in New Jersey?
Forty-five days after entry of the judgment or order, by filing a notice of appeal in the Appellate Division; 21 days in termination-of-parental-rights cases and 45 days after service of an agency decision. The court may extend the time by at most 30 days, and a timely new-trial or reconsideration motion tolls the remaining time rather than restarting it (N.J. Ct. R. 2:4-1, 2:4-3(e), 2:4-4).
When is Juneteenth observed by New Jersey courts?
On the third Friday in June, not June 19: and . New Jersey’s statute fixes the holiday that way (N.J.S.A. 36:1-1), so the state date differs from the federal one in most years.