Count court days the way Uniform Rule 1 does, skipping Saturdays, Sundays and every South African public holiday, or count calendar days and see whether the last day lands on a court day. The calculator shows every day it walked through, the other periods from the same date, and puts the deadline straight into your calendar.
Ten court days to plead, five court days to file an answering affidavit after a notice of set-down, twenty court days to deliver a plea after a notice of bar has run: type the period the rule gives you and the calculator returns the last day, with every weekend and holiday it stepped over. The answer updates as you type.
| Period | Last day |
|---|---|
| Five court days (e.g. notice of bar, Rule 26) | Fri 23 Oct 2026 |
| Ten court days (e.g. notice of intention to defend, Rule 19) | Fri 30 Oct 2026 |
| Fifteen court days (e.g. discovery, Rule 35) | Mon 9 Nov 2026 |
| Twenty court days (e.g. plea, Rule 22) | Mon 16 Nov 2026 |
| Seven calendar days | Sun 25 Oct 2026 * |
| Fourteen calendar days | Sun 1 Nov 2026 * |
| Twenty-one calendar days | Sun 8 Nov 2026 * |
| Thirty calendar days (e.g. CCMA referral) | Tue 17 Nov 2026 |
Per the Public Holidays Act 36 of 1994, including the Sunday-to-Monday rule. These are the days the court-day count skips.
| Date | Holiday |
|---|---|
| Thu 1 Jan 2026 | New Year's Day |
| Sat 21 Mar 2026 | Human Rights Day |
| Fri 3 Apr 2026 | Good Friday |
| Mon 6 Apr 2026 | Family Day |
| Mon 27 Apr 2026 | Freedom Day |
| Fri 1 May 2026 | Workers' Day |
| Tue 16 Jun 2026 | Youth Day |
| Sun 9 Aug 2026 | National Women's Day |
| Mon 10 Aug 2026 | National Women's Day (observed) |
| Thu 24 Sep 2026 | Heritage Day |
| Wed 4 Nov 2026 | Local government elections |
| Wed 16 Dec 2026 | Day of Reconciliation |
| Fri 25 Dec 2026 | Christmas Day |
| Sat 26 Dec 2026 | Day of Goodwill |
Under Uniform Rule 1, a court day is any day other than a Saturday, Sunday or public holiday. When a rule says "within ten days" it means court days unless it says otherwise.
No. The civil method excludes the day of the trigger event and includes the last day. If the last day is not a court day, the period usually runs to the next court day.
The Public Holidays Act 36 of 1994: the fixed holidays, Good Friday and Family Day worked out from the Easter date, and the rule that a holiday falling on a Sunday moves to the Monday. One-off gazetted holidays such as election days cannot be known in advance and are not included.
The court-day method is the same, but each court's rules set their own periods and some statutes count calendar days. Check the rule you are working under and switch to calendar days where it applies.
It is a working aid built on the published rules, not legal advice. Confirm any deadline that matters against the rule itself and diarise it with a margin. Attorneys using AttorneyOS get the same calculator inside the diary, with the date added to the matter in one click.
Court deadlines are unforgiving and the count is easy to get wrong. A listed litigation attorney can take the file, confirm the date and act in time.
Find a litigation attorneyCalculate from the matter, add the date in one click, and let the prescription register and the Monday court roll watch the rest.