TEXAS RULES OF CIVIL PROCEDURE / RULE 4
TRCP 4: Computation of time
See how the starting day, weekends and holidays fit into counting time.
The triggering day is excluded
Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 4 explains how to compute a period prescribed or allowed by the rules, a court order or an applicable statute. Exclude the day of the act, event or default that starts the period. Include the last day, unless it falls on a Saturday, Sunday or legal holiday; in that event, the period runs through the next day that is none of those.
Short periods have a separate counting rule
For periods of five days or less in these rules, do not count Saturdays, Sundays or legal holidays. Rule 4 expressly excepts the three-day mail extensions referenced in Rules 21 and 21a: those days count for that extension.
Identify the deadline before counting
First identify the rule or order that supplies the period and the event that starts it. A response period after service and a period after a judgment is signed can begin from different events. Use the illustration to review the counting method, then read the provision governing the particular deadline.
THE ILLUSTRATED RULEBOOK
Rule 4, illustrated
