Arizona Rule of Civil Procedure 6: Computing Time

Under Arizona Rule of Civil Procedure 6, you count a deadline by skipping the day that triggered it, counting every day after that until you reach the last day, and extending to the next business day if the last day lands on a weekend or legal holiday. For deadlines shorter than 11 days, you also skip weekends and legal holidays while counting. That short-deadline wrinkle is the single most common source of miscalculation in Arizona civil practice, because the federal rules dropped it in 2009 and Arizona did not.

How to Count the Days

Rule 6(a) always begins the same way: ignore the day of the event that starts the clock. If a judge signs an order on Wednesday giving you 20 days to respond, Wednesday does not count. Thursday is day one. You then count every day until you reach the end of the period, and the last day is included. If your deadline is day 20, you must file on or before day 20.¹

When a deadline is measured backward from a future event (such as a filing due a certain number of days before a hearing), you count backward using the same method.

Deadlines Under 11 Days: Skip Weekends and Holidays

Rule 6(a)(2) treats short deadlines differently. When the period is less than 11 days, you skip every intervening Saturday, Sunday, and legal holiday. Only business days count toward the total.¹

A worked example: an event on Friday triggers a 5-day deadline. Exclude Friday. Skip Saturday and Sunday. Monday is day 1, Tuesday is day 2, Wednesday is day 3, Thursday is day 4, Friday is day 5. The deadline falls on the following Friday, a full week after the trigger. If a legal holiday had fallen in the middle, the deadline would stretch another day. Applying straight calendar math to a short period will almost always put you late.

Deadlines of 11 Days or More: Every Calendar Day Counts

Once the period reaches 11 days, you count every calendar day, weekends and holidays included. If an event on March 1 triggers a 30-day deadline, you exclude March 1 and count March 2 as day one. Day 30 lands on March 31.

When the Last Day Is a Weekend or Holiday

Rule 6(a)(3) applies to every deadline, short or long. If the final day of the period falls on a Saturday, Sunday, or legal holiday, the deadline automatically extends to the next day that is not one of those.¹

Arizona’s legal holiday list under A.R.S. § 1-301 is longer than many people expect, and it includes several dates that are specific to the state.²

New Year’s Day: January 1
Martin Luther King Jr./Civil Rights Day: Third Monday in January
Lincoln/Washington Presidents’ Day: Third Monday in February
Memorial Day: Last Monday in May
Native American Day: June 2
Independence Day: July 4
National Navajo Code Talkers Day: August 14
Labor Day: First Monday in September
Constitution Commemoration Day: September 17
Columbus Day: Second Monday in October
Veterans Day: November 11
Thanksgiving Day: Fourth Thursday in November
Christmas Day: December 25

Every Sunday is also a legal holiday under the statute, along with Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, and American Family Day. Native American Day on June 2 and National Navajo Code Talkers Day on August 14 are the ones most often missed. If one of those lands on the final day of your deadline, the deadline rolls just as it would for Christmas.

Add Five Days for Mail and Certain Service Methods

Rule 6(c) adds five calendar days to a response deadline when the document that triggered it was served by one of three methods under Rule 5(c)(2):¹

U.S. mail to the person’s last-known address
Other delivery methods, including non-approved electronic means, where the recipient consented in writing or a court ordered the method
Approved electronic filing service providers designated by the Administrative Office of the Courts

These correspond to Rule 5(c)(2)(C), (D), and (E).³ You add the five days after you finish the base calculation under Rule 6(a), not before.

The five-day add-on does not apply when the deadline runs from the entry of a court order or judgment rather than from service of a document. An order giving you 15 days to act gives you 15 days from entry, period.¹

Electronic Filing and the Midnight Cutoff

Arizona state courts accept electronic filings, and a document is deemed filed when the system receives it. In practice, you have until 11:59 p.m. on the deadline date, not just until the clerk’s office closes. If the system receives your submission before midnight but a clerk reviews and accepts it the next business day, the filing date relates back to receipt.

Treating midnight as your real target is a bad habit. System outages, rejected payments, and formatting errors all push the actual filing past the deadline. Build in several hours of buffer.

Asking the Court for More Time

Rule 6(b) lets a court extend most deadlines, and the standard you face depends on whether the deadline has already passed.¹

Ask before the deadline runs, and the bar is low. The court can extend for good cause, with or without a motion and without notice to the other side. Most attorneys call opposing counsel, get a stipulation, and submit it. Reasonable pre-deadline requests are almost always granted.

Ask after the deadline has run, and you need to file a motion showing excusable neglect. Being busy or forgetting does not qualify.¹

The Four Excusable Neglect Factors

Arizona courts weigh four factors drawn from the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Pioneer Investment Services Co. v. Brunswick Associates:

Prejudice to the other side if relief is granted
Length of the delay and its effect on the court’s schedule
Reason for the delay, including whether it was within your reasonable control
Whether you acted in good faith

No factor controls, but the reason for the delay tends to carry the most weight. A calendaring error by staff, a medical emergency, or genuine confusion from an ambiguous order can qualify. The longer you wait after missing the deadline, the smaller your chances. Judges are far more receptive to a party who missed by a day and moved the next morning than to one who waited weeks.

Deadlines the Court Cannot Extend

Several post-judgment deadlines are off-limits to the general extension power, subject only to the narrow exception in Rule 6(b)(2):

Rule 50(b): renewed motions for judgment as a matter of law after trial
Rule 52(b): motions for amended or additional findings, due within 15 days of judgment
Rule 59(b)(1): motions for a new trial, due within 15 days of judgment
Rule 59(c): court-initiated new trial orders, which must be entered within 15 days of judgment
Rule 59(d): motions to alter or amend a judgment, due within 15 days of judgment

Miss one of these and the judgment stands, no matter how strong the underlying argument.

What Happens If You Miss a Deadline

Consequences scale with the deadline. Fail to respond to a complaint and the opposing party can apply for entry of default under Rule 55; default becomes effective 10 days after the application is filed, which is your window to respond before a default judgment follows.⁴ Miss a discovery deadline and you can face sanctions, including exclusion of the evidence you need. Miss a dispositive motion deadline and the court may decide the case on the other side’s papers alone. Miss one of the non-extendable post-judgment deadlines and the right to bring that particular motion is gone.

If a deadline has already slipped, move immediately. Every day that passes makes excusable neglect harder to show.

1
New York Codes, Rules and Regulations. Arizona Rules of Civil Procedure – Rule 6 Computing and Extending Time
2
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes 1-301 – Holidays Enumerated
3
New York Codes, Rules and Regulations. Arizona Rules of Civil Procedure – Rule 5 Serving Pleadings and Other Documents
4
New York Codes, Rules and Regulations. Arizona Rules of Civil Procedure – Rule 55 Default and Default Judgment