One of the most critical aspects in any litigation is to ensure that court deadlines are met for all court filings. Florida Rule of Judicial Administration 2.514 is the primary rule for how to govern computation of time periods for deadlines in all types of proceedings.
Prior to 2012, if a pleading or response was required to be performed in a specified time after service was made by mail, an additional 5 days were added to the time specified. This is referred to as the “mail rule.” By way of example, assume a deadline of 30 days to file a response after service of a motion. If the thirtieth day following service of the motion fell on a Sunday, five days would have been added to Sunday, and the period would have expired on the following Friday.
In 2012, however, the Florida Supreme Court amended various rules of procedure regarding computation of time. Rule 2.514(b) now provides that “when a party may or must act within a specified time after service and service is made by mail or e-mail, 5 days are added after the period that would otherwise expire under subdivision (a).” This rule, like the former rule, provides an additional 5 days to any deadline if the document triggering the act was served by mail or e-mail.
In McCray v. State , the First District Court of Appeal explained that the computation process under Rule 2.514 is now a two-step process, which may result in even more time afforded to litigants. Under the current rule, if the thirtieth day following service of a motion falls on a Sunday, the period runs until the end of the next day that was not a Saturday, Sunday, or legal holiday, which, in this example, would be Monday. Only then, in the second step, are 5 days added to the computation. So, the additional 5 days (for service by mail or e-mail) would begin to run on Monday, resulting in the expiration date falling on Saturday. Since the deadline would be a Saturday, the rule in subdivision (a) is once again implicated and the time for acting on the motion thus extends to the next Monday.
In a circumstance such as this, then, the addition of subdivision (b) to Rule 2.514 would give parties and courts an extra 3 days until the deadline, in addition to the 5 days expressly provided by the rule. (If the thirtieth day after service fell on a Saturday, the new rule would give an extra 4 days before the deadline.) This could provide valuable additional time for responding to pleadings and demonstrates that understanding the computation of time for deadlines is an important tool in any litigation.