Legal Definitions - court day

A court day refers to any day on which a court is officially open and conducting business. This typically excludes weekends, public holidays, and any other days when the court is formally closed. It is a crucial concept for calculating deadlines and scheduling legal proceedings, as many legal timeframes are measured in court days rather than standard calendar days.

Here are some examples illustrating the application of a court day:

• Calculating Filing Deadlines: Imagine a situation where a legal rule states that a party must file a specific document within "5 court days" of receiving a notice. If the notice is received on a Friday, and the following Monday is a public holiday, the calculation would skip Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. The first court day would be Tuesday, making the deadline the following Monday (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and the next Monday would be the five court days). This ensures that parties have the full allotted time when the court is operational to prepare and submit their filings.

• Scheduling Hearings: A judge might instruct the court clerk to schedule a particular hearing for "the second court day of the following week." If the following week begins with a Monday that is a federal holiday, the first court day would be Tuesday, and the second court day would then be Wednesday. This ensures that the hearing is set for a day when the courthouse is open and fully staffed to conduct official proceedings.

• Statutory Time Limits: Some laws specify that certain actions must be completed within a set number of court days. For instance, a statute might require a government agency to respond to a legal request within "10 court days." If the agency receives the request just before a long weekend that includes a holiday, the 10-court-day period would only count the days the court (and by extension, often government offices) are open for business, effectively extending the calendar deadline to account for non-business days.