Free legal calculator
Count court days to a deadline
Find the last day for a notice of intention to defend, a plea or an affidavit, counting only court days and leaving out public holidays and the December–January period the rules exclude. Or count the court days between two dates.
Nothing you enter is saved. Rates, tariffs and tax tables come from the published sources we maintain, dated so each result uses the figures in force on the dates you give. Every result shows where its numbers came from.
A calculation aid, not legal advice. Check the result against the Act, the rules of court and any practice directive of the division before relying on it. If a deadline matters, speak to an attorney.
Good to know
Questions, answered
- What is a court day?
- Any day that is not a Saturday, Sunday or public holiday (Uniform Rules, rule 1; the Magistrates’ Courts rules say the same). The day of service is not counted; the last day is. So 10 court days after service on a Friday runs from the following Monday.
- Which days over December and January do not count?
- It depends on the step. For a notice of intention to defend and for pleadings, 16 December to 15 January is not counted (Uniform Rules 19(1) and 26; Magistrates’ Courts rule 13). For motion proceedings, the notice of intention to oppose and the affidavits exclude 21 December to 7 January (Uniform Rule 6(5)(b)(iii)(aa)), except in urgent applications and Rule 43 applications. Other periods run straight through.
- Which public holidays are counted?
- All twelve holidays in the Public Holidays Act, including the Monday after a holiday that falls on a Sunday, plus days the President declares under section 2A, such as election days. Declared holidays are loaded as they are proclaimed; a deadline far in the future cannot know about one declared later.
- What about periods in calendar days?
- Where a law gives a number of days without saying court days, section 4 of the Interpretation Act applies: exclude the first day, include the last, and if the last day is a Sunday or public holiday move to the next day that is not. Saturdays count. Choose calendar days for those.
- Do practice directives change these periods?
- They can. Divisions of the High Court issue practice directives and notices about the December recess and other periods. Check the directive of the division the matter is in before relying on a date.
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