Washington’s counting rule appears three times in nearly identical words. Civil Rule 6(a) governs the superior courts, CRLJ 6(a) the district and municipal courts, and RAP 18.6(a) the Court of Appeals and Supreme Court: the day of the act or event is excluded, the last day is included unless it is a Saturday, Sunday or legal holiday, and a period of less than seven days excludes intermediate Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays. All three send the reader to RCW 1.16.050 for the holidays. Behind them sits RCW 1.12.040, the computation statute from territorial days, which excludes the first day and a last day that is a holiday, Saturday or Sunday but says nothing about short periods.
Eleven legal holidays and a weekend rule written into the statute
RCW 1.16.050 lists Sunday and eleven dated holidays: New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Presidents’ Day, Memorial Day, Juneteenth (added for 2022), Independence Day, Labor Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving Day, Native American Heritage Day on the Friday after Thanksgiving, and Christmas Day. Unlike most states, Washington puts the weekend rule in the statute: a holiday that falls on a Saturday is observed on the preceding Friday, and one that falls on a Sunday on the following Monday, so the observed day is itself the legal holiday for counting. RCW 2.28.100 then closes every court on a legal holiday. Neither the courts nor the Office of Financial Management publishes a dated list; the Washington Courts’ “Court Closing Days” page simply repeats the statute, so the 2026, 2027 and 2028 dates in this calculator are generated from it and labelled projected. The legislature also recognises two dozen days, from Korean American Day to Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day, that it says may not be considered legal holidays for any purpose, and they do not move a deadline.
Date of service: · 30 days · Fax or electronic means (no days added)
- Count 30 calendar days after (that day is not counted): .
- Fax or electronic means (no days added) adds no extra days.
- is not a court day (Native American Heritage Day), so the deadline moves forward to , passing (Saturday), (Sunday).
Deadline:
Fewer than seven days means judicial days only
A three-day reply, a five-day notice of a motion hearing and the one day for opposing affidavits all fall under seven days, so weekends and legal holidays inside them are not counted. A 10-day or 20-day period counts every day and looks only at where it ends. The dividing line matters most in late June and around Independence Day, when an observed Friday holiday sits next to a weekend and a short period can stretch across four calendar days that do not count. The same sentence appears in RAP 18.6(a), so the three-day reply to an answer to an appellate motion (RAP 17.4(e)) is counted the same way.
Date of service: · 3 days · Hand delivery (no days added)
- Count 3 court days after , skipping 2 weekend days, Juneteenth (): . (Periods of 6 days or less exclude weekends and legal holidays.)
- Hand delivery (no days added) adds no extra days.
Deadline:
Mail adds three days; electronic service has a 5:00 p.m. clock
CR 6(e) adds three days to a period that runs from service when the paper was served by mail, and CR 5(b)(2)(A) separately deems mail service complete on the third day after mailing. Whether both apply to the same paper has not been settled by a decision this calculator could cite, so it counts the three CR 6(e) days from the mailing date, the earlier result. Fax or electronic service adds no days, but CR 5(b)(7) makes service after 5:00 p.m., or on a Saturday, Sunday or holiday, complete at 9:00 a.m. on the next judicial day, so a paper e-served at 5:30 p.m. on a Friday starts its period on Monday. Filing has its own clock: under GR 30(c)(1) an e-filed document submitted outside the clerk’s business hours is filed at the start of the next court business day, and in the appellate courts RAP 18.6(d) sets 5:00 p.m. Pacific as the cutoff, except for a notice of appeal, which is filed in the superior court.
Date of service: · 30 days · The period does not run from service (entry, filing, notice or another event)
- Count 30 calendar days after (that day is not counted): .
- The period does not run from service (entry, filing, notice or another event) adds no extra days.
- is not a court day (Christmas Day), so the deadline moves forward to , passing (Saturday), (Sunday).
Deadline:
A summary-judgment response that rolls toward the hearing
CR 56(c) sets a fixed schedule in calendar days: the motion 28 days before the hearing, the response 11 days before, rebuttal five days before, and the hearing itself more than 14 days before trial. Because the rule says calendar days, the five-day rebuttal is not stretched by the short-period rule. The rule then does something no other Washington period does: if the response or rebuttal date falls on a Saturday, Sunday or legal holiday, the paper is filed and served not later than the next day nearer the hearing, that is, later. The calculator keeps the earlier judicial day as the first answer because filing then can never be late, and shows the CR 56(c) date as the alternative. The 28-day motion deadline has no such sentence and is moved earlier like any other period counted back from a hearing.
Hearing date: · 11 days
- Count 11 calendar days before (that day is not counted): .
- is not a court day (Martin Luther King Jr. Day), so the deadline moves back to , passing (Sunday), (Saturday).
Deadline:
Other reading: (Calendar days, moved to the next day nearer the hearing (CR 56(c)))
Post-trial motions in ten days, the appeal in thirty
A motion for reconsideration or new trial (CR 59(b)), to alter or amend the judgment (CR 59(h)), a renewed motion for judgment as a matter of law (CR 50(b)) and a motion to amend findings (CR 52(b)) are each due 10 days after entry of the judgment, and CR 6(b) forbids the court to enlarge the first three. The cost bill and a motion for attorney fees are also due in 10 days (CR 54(d)), and execution is stayed for the same 10 days (CR 62(a)). The notice of appeal is due 30 days after entry, or 30 days after the order deciding one of those timely motions (RAP 5.2(a), (e)); another party then has 14 days after being served with it. In the Court of Appeals the brief of appellant is due 60 days after the report of proceedings is filed, the respondent’s brief 30 days after service, a motion for reconsideration 20 days after the decision is filed, and a petition for review 30 days after the decision or the order on reconsideration (RAP 10.2, 12.4, 13.4).
Hearing date: · 5 days
- Count 5 court days before , skipping 4 weekend days, Native American Heritage Day (), Thanksgiving Day (): . (Periods of 6 days or less exclude weekends and legal holidays.)
Deadline:
Eviction notices and agency appeals under RCW 1.12.040
Periods that run before any lawsuit exists are counted under the statute rather than the court rules. The residential 14-day notice to pay rent or vacate, the 10-day notice to comply, the three-day notice to quit for nuisance, and the 20-, 60- and 90-day notices to vacate under RCW 59.18.650 all count every day; only a last day that is a holiday, Saturday or Sunday is excluded. A notice served by mail under RCW 59.12.040 gives the tenant five additional days before the landlord may file. The same counting applies to the 30-day petition for judicial review of an agency order (RCW 34.05.542), the 10-day petition for reconsideration that tolls it (RCW 34.05.470), the 21-day land use petition (RCW 36.70C.040), the 20-day request for trial de novo after civil arbitration (SCCAR 7.1; RCW 7.06.050) and the 30-day appeal from a small claims judgment (RCW 12.36.020). Limitation periods in years, such as the three years for personal injury (RCW 4.16.080), end on the anniversary date, or the next judicial day when that is a weekend or holiday.
Date of service: · 3 days · Personal delivery, posting, or the period runs from an event (no days added)
- Count 3 calendar days after (that day is not counted): .
- Personal delivery, posting, or the period runs from an event (no days added) adds no extra days.
- is not a court day (Sunday), so the deadline moves forward to .
Deadline:
What the Washington calculator leaves open
Every rule and statute on this page was read in the official PDFs on courts.wa.gov and the official text on app.leg.wa.gov on , and the counting rules and every named deadline were reviewed by an attorney. Open points are recorded in the verification notes: whether CR 5(b)(2)(A) and CR 6(e) stack for a mailed paper, whether a court would apply the short-period rule to a statutory eviction notice once it is litigated, which direction a date counted back from a hearing moves under CR 6(a), and whether RCW 1.12.040 moves the last day of a limitation period. The calculator does not know a county’s local rules on e-filing hours or motion notice, the Court of Appeals divisions’ general orders, or a municipal court’s own closure days.
Questions about Washington deadlines
How many days do you have to answer a complaint in Washington?
Twenty days after service of the summons and complaint, excluding the day of service, when served personally in Washington (CR 12(a)(1)); 60 days after service by publication, personal service outside the state or service in a jail or prison. The three mail days of CR 6(e) never apply to the summons.
Does the Friday after Thanksgiving close Washington courts?
Yes. RCW 1.16.050(1)(k) makes the Friday immediately following the fourth Thursday in November a state legal holiday, Native American Heritage Day, and RCW 2.28.100 closes every court on a legal holiday. A deadline that lands on it, or on Thanksgiving, runs to the following Monday.
Is the deadline earlier when a Washington holiday falls on a weekend?
The statute itself moves it: when a legal holiday falls on a Saturday the preceding Friday is the legal holiday, and when it falls on a Sunday the following Monday is (RCW 1.16.050(5)). So , and are court holidays, and a last day on any of them runs to the next judicial day.
When is the response to a summary-judgment motion due in Washington?
Eleven calendar days before the hearing, after a motion filed and served 28 calendar days before it; rebuttal documents are due five calendar days before (CR 56(c)). If the response or rebuttal date is a Saturday, Sunday or legal holiday, the rule allows filing on the next day nearer the hearing. The calculator shows the earlier judicial day first and that later date as the alternative.
How long do you have to appeal a superior court judgment in Washington?
Thirty days after entry of the decision (RAP 5.2(a)), or 30 days after the order deciding a timely CR 50(b), 52(b) or 59 motion (RAP 5.2(e)). Entry is delivery of the signed judgment to the clerk (CR 58(b)). The appellate court extends this period only in extraordinary circumstances (RAP 18.8(b)), and a party already served with a notice of appeal has 14 days to file its own (RAP 5.2(f)).
Does a 14-day pay-or-vacate notice count weekends in Washington?
Yes. The notice period in RCW 59.12.030(3) is a statutory period outside any court case, so RCW 1.12.040 governs: every day counts, and only a last day that is a holiday, Saturday or Sunday is excluded. Serving the notice by mail adds five days before an unlawful detainer action may be filed (RCW 59.12.040).