By Robert Chapski 

As we enter a long holiday weekend, I want to give credit to our law partner, Jim Doran, for pointing out recently that effective December 1, 2009, the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure will be amended (see attached .pdf below) to do away with the "computing time" provision that says when the period of time is less than 11 days, you exclude weekends and holidays in the calculation.

So, that means that no matter what time is specified, you count all days.  Some short time frames are lengthened and there provisions for when the last day falls on a weekend (i.e., the period extends to the next day that is not a Saturday, Sunday or holiday) but be sure to take a look at the changes.  As most litigators know, a lot of things can be corrected but missing a deadline can be crucial.  Take a look also at the summary of the changes posted on the Akron Law Cafe blog.

Fed Rule 6.pdf (141.96 kb)