Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 4 governs “any period of time prescribed or allowed by these rules, by order of court, or by any applicable statute.” It looks like the federal rule, with two differences that change real deadlines: short periods skip weekends and holidays, and the list of Texas “legal holidays” is longer — and less settled — than the federal one.
Rule 4, step by step
- The day of the act, event or default that starts the period is not counted.
- The last day is counted, unless it is a Saturday, Sunday or legal holiday; then the period runs to the end of the next day that is none of those.
- In any period of five days or less, Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays are not counted at all.
- Exception: the three days added for service by mail are always counted as calendar days.
A six-day period is therefore counted like any longer period — every day counts and only the last day can move.
Date of service: · 6 days · In person or commercial delivery
- Count 6 calendar days after (that day is not counted): .
- In person or commercial delivery adds no extra days.
- is not a court day (Sunday), so the deadline moves forward to .
Deadline:
Short periods: three-day notices and other counts of five days or less
The five-day clause turns short periods into business-day counts, and a one- or two-day period counted back from a hearing skips the weekend before it. The best-known short period is harder. Rule 21(b) requires notice of a hearing “not less than three days before the time specified for the court proceeding,” but Rule 4’s exception counts weekends and holidays “for purpose of the three-day periods in Rules 21 and 21a.” A San Antonio court counted the weekend in a hearing-notice period in Buruato v. Mercy Hospital of Laredo (1999), and no court has settled the question. The hearing-notice option shows both counts: three business days, the earlier and safer date when you give notice, and three calendar days, which matters when you are deciding whether notice you received was enough.
Date of the hearing:
- Count 3 court days before , skipping 2 weekend days, Day after Thanksgiving (), Thanksgiving Day (): . (Periods of 5 days or less exclude weekends and legal holidays.)
Deadline:
Other reading: (Three business days (Rule 4's five-day clause), national holidays only); (Three calendar days (Rule 4's exception for the three-day periods in Rules 21 and 21a))
Three more days for mail — and only for mail
Rule 21a(c) adds three days to the prescribed period “whenever a party has the right or is required to do some act within a prescribed period after the service of a notice or other paper” and the paper was served by mail. The three days are added to the period itself, and the result is moved off a weekend or holiday once.
No days are added for service through the electronic filing manager, by email, by fax, by commercial delivery service or in person. Two timing rules affect when service happens instead: mail and commercial delivery are complete when deposited, and fax service completed after 5:00 p.m. in the recipient’s time zone is deemed served the next day (Rule 21a(b)). If you were faxed after 5:00 p.m., enter the next day as the date of service.
Date of service: · 5 days · Mail
- Count 5 court days after , skipping 4 weekend days, Christmas Day (): . (Periods of 5 days or less exclude weekends and legal holidays.)
- Mail adds time. Count 3 calendar days after (that day is not counted): .
Deadline:
Other reading: (Texas state holidays and Dec 24/26 also count as legal holidays)
This example shows both rules at once: the five business days skip Christmas, the three mail days are counted straight through the holidays, and the two holiday readings described below produce different results.
Which Texas holidays stop the clock
Rule 4 says “legal holiday” without defining it. The Government Code supplies two lists:
- National holidays (§ 662.003(a)): New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Presidents’ Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day. Columbus Day and Juneteenth are not on this list.
- State holidays (§ 662.003(b)): Confederate Heroes Day (January 19), Texas Independence Day (March 2), San Jacinto Day (April 21), Emancipation Day (June 19), Lyndon Baines Johnson Day (August 27), the Friday after Thanksgiving, December 24 and December 26.
Texas does not move a holiday that falls on a weekend to a Friday or Monday.
Most courts treat the national holidays as legal holidays, but not all. The Dallas court of appeals held in Lowe v. Rivera (2001) that Presidents’ Day did not extend a limitations period when the courthouse was open, and the Fort Worth court of appeals disagreed in Frasier v. Shafeeq (2022), holding that Veterans Day extended a deadline even though county offices were open. The calculator follows the majority; when the courthouse is open on a national holiday, filing that day avoids the question. The state holidays are harder. Section 662.021 calls the first six of them “legal holidays,” and the Supreme Court of Texas treated a day the legislature declared a holiday for state employees as a Rule 4 holiday in Mid-Continent Refrigerator Co. v. Tackett, 584 S.W.2d 705 (Tex. 1979). But most clerk’s offices stay open on the “skeleton crew” days — Confederate Heroes Day, Texas Independence Day, San Jacinto Day, Emancipation Day and LBJ Day. December 24 and 26 are not § 662.021 legal holidays at all, though state offices close and one appellate court treated December 26 as a holiday.
Because the answer is unsettled, the calculator computes each Texas deadline twice — counting only the national holidays, and counting the state holidays too — and shows the earlier date with the other as an alternative.
Date of service: · 10 days · In person or commercial delivery
- Count 10 calendar days after (that day is not counted): .
- In person or commercial delivery adds no extra days.
Deadline:
Other reading: (Texas state holidays and Dec 24/26 also count as legal holidays)
County closures count too
The Supreme Court of Texas has held that “legal holiday” in Rule 4 includes a day the county commissioners court declares a holiday and a day the clerk’s office for the court is officially closed (Miller Brewing Co. v. Villarreal, 829 S.W.2d 770 (Tex. 1992)). Either one is enough: a holiday the commissioners court adopts counts even if the clerk’s office opens. Counties set their own closure calendars, and they differ: Harris and Dallas counties stay open on Presidents’ Day and Veterans Day, Bexar closes for Battle of Flowers, and El Paso closes its courthouse for most of the last two weeks of 2026. Choose the county under Which court? to apply the schedules and weather closures we have read on official county pages for Travis, Tarrant, Harris, Bexar, El Paso, Denton, Williamson and Hidalgo counties. Dallas County’s holiday list is flagged rather than applied until we find the commissioners court order adopting it; its January 2026 storm closures, which the county announced for its courts, are applied. For any other county, enter a closure under Was the court closed on a day in the period?
Filing electronically on the last day
A document filed electronically is timely if it is filed before midnight in the court’s time zone on the last day, unless it must be filed by a specific time of day (Rule 21(f)(5)). A document transmitted on a Saturday, Sunday or legal holiday is deemed filed on the next day that is not one. For a defendant’s original answer, the deadline is 10:00 a.m. on the due date — see the Texas answer deadline calculator.