About this site
Written and maintained by Jacob H. Katz, a California attorney admitted in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California.
Who maintains it
I am a California attorney admitted in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California. Every rule on this site is quoted from the official text and computed from that text. The site applies the national rules only; no district's local rules or chambers rules are applied yet, including the Southern District's.
Education
- J.D., University of San Diego School of Law
- B.A. Political Science, University of California, Berkeley
Recognition
- National Trial Lawyers, Top 40 Under 40
- Avvo Clients' Choice Award, 2024 and 2025
- Super Lawyers Rising Star, 2024 and 2025 (selection process)
Published
- "Dealing with Daubert: Finding the Right Balance," Jury Trial Committee Improvement Newsletter
- "Judicial Problems: Answering Jurors' Questions," Jury Trial Committee Improvement Newsletter
Why it exists
Federal deadline tools rarely show the rule behind the date. This site quotes every rule it applies, cites it to the subdivision, and marks each row as countersigned or not, so you can check the work before you rely on it.
It is built the same way as calcourtdeadlines.com, the California state court calculator I also maintain: the rule text first, the date second, and the reasoning shown in between.
What the name does not do
It does not make a date correct. A calculator is right or it is wrong, and my name is not evidence either way.
So do not take the number on faith. Every result shows its work: the rule text, the subdivision, whether Rule 6(d) or FRAP 26(c) added three days, the weekend and holiday roll, and the order they were applied in. Where no decision this site has read settles a question, the result says so and gives the earliest and latest dates rather than quietly picking one. The methodology page sets out the method, and the rule verification record quotes every rule row with its source, edition and page.
How a rule row is transcribed and countersigned
Each rule row is copied from the official text: the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and of Appellate Procedure as printed by the Government Publishing Office, the U.S. Code at uscode.house.gov, and executive orders in the Federal Register. The row records the source, the edition, the printed page and the day it was read. A row counts as countersigned only when an attorney has read it against that source and put a date on it, and until then the row says it is not yet countersigned.
Where the pass stands today: 68 rule rows transcribed from the official text on 2026-09-30. None has been countersigned yet. Committee notes, closure orders and cases are recorded as separate authority rows and are countersigned the same way. A case is not named on a calculator result until its row is countersigned.
Nothing here is for sale
No ads, no consultation form, no intake, no affiliate links, no paid tier, and no way to hire me through this site. It generates no leads and is not built to. My employer is not named anywhere on it.
That is a design constraint rather than an oversight, and it is the reason the site can carry my name without becoming an advertisement. It also keeps the incentives honest: a deadline calculator that exists to bring in work is one where you state the rule, skip the part where the authority is unsettled, and stop re-reading the rules once the traffic arrives.
Using this with an AI assistant
The same rules engine is published as a Model Context Protocol server, so Claude, ChatGPT or any other MCP client can compute a federal deadline from the rule text rather than from training data. Answers come back with the rule, the holiday roll and each row's countersign status attached. It is free and needs no account.
Found an error?
Error reports are treated as the highest priority and are corrected before other work.
errors@federalcourtdeadlines.com Please include the calculator, the inputs you entered, the date it produced, and the date you believe is correct with its authority.
What this is not
Not legal advice, and using it creates no attorney-client relationship. It is a calculator maintained by one attorney, not a docketing service, and it does not know your case, your district's local rules, or your judge's standing order. Check every date against the rule and the orders in your case before you calendar it. The terms of use say the same thing at more length.