Rule 354.Computation of Time
Last amended January 1, 2020 · Last verified July 1, 2026
Full Text of Rule 354
Advisory Committee Comments
Advisory Committee Comment
State-Level Judicial-Branch Holidays. The legal holidays listed in Rule 354.03 are based upon Minn. Stat. § 645.44, subd. 5 (2000), which defines state-level judicial- branch holidays. The statute further provides that when New Year’s Day (January 1), Independence Day (July 4), Veteran’s Day (November 11), or Christmas Day (December 25) falls on a Sunday, the following day (Monday) shall be a holiday, and that when New Year’s Day, Independence Day, Veteran’s Day, or Christmas Day falls on a Saturday, the preceding day (Friday) shall be a holiday. Minn. Stat. § 645.44, subd. 5, also authorizes the judicial branch to designate certain other days as holidays. The Judicial Branch Personnel Plan designates the Friday after Thanksgiving as a holiday.
County Holidays. Counties are authorized to close county offices on certain days under Minn. Stat. § 373.052 (2000). Thus, if a county closes its offices under Minn. Stat. § 373.052 on a day that is not a state-level judicial-branch holiday, such as Christopher Columbus Day (the second Monday in October), the court in that county would nevertheless include that day as a holiday for the purpose of computing time under Rule 354.03. See Mittelstadt v. Breider, 286 Minn. 211, 212, 175 N.W.2d 191, 192 (1970) (applying Minn. Stat. § 373.052 to filing of notice of election contest with district court). If a county does not close its offices on a day that is a state-level judicial-branch holiday, such as the Friday after Thanksgiving, the court in that county must still include that day as a holiday for the purpose of computing time under Rule 354.03.
Advisory Committee Comment—2020 Amendments
This amended Rule 354 is drawn directly to Rule 6.01 as amended as part of the extensive revamping of the timing rules for all civil matters. These amendments implement the adoption of a standard “day” for counting deadlines under the rules—counting all days regardless of the length of the period and standardizing the time periods, where practicable, to a 7-, 14-, 21- or 28-day schedule. The most important establishes “a day is a day”—all days during a period under the rules, regardless of length, are included, including weekends and legal holidays. This change mirrors a set of changes made in the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and is intended to create substantial similarity between “state days” and “federal days.” The amended rule also adopts the same definition of “legal holidays” as used in Minn. R. Civ. P. 6.
Rule 354.01(f) is an important provision that will affect many deadlines. It establishes an explicit rule for how days are counted when counting “backwards” from a deadline. The rule requires that, when counting backwards from an event, and the last day falls on a weekend or holiday, the counting continues to the next earlier date that is not a weekend or holiday. This rule is modeled on its federal counterpart and is intended to create greater uniformity in timing between all state and federal court matters.
Amendment History
- (Amended effective January 1, 2020.)
- (Amended effective January 1, 2020.)
- (Amended effective January 1, 2020.)
Plain-English Summary
Rule 354 supplies the default method for counting any deadline that a rule, a local rule, a court order, or a statute sets without spelling out its own method. When a period is stated in days, skip the day the triggering event happened, count every day after that including Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays, and land on the next court day if the final day would otherwise fall on a weekend or holiday. A period is only allowed to skip weekends and holidays in the counting itself when some other rule or statute expressly says so, and even then only if the period is shorter than 7 days.
Deadlines measured in hours work the same way in spirit: counting starts the moment the triggering event happens, every hour counts even across a weekend or holiday, and a deadline that would land during closed hours slides to the same time on the next court day. Rule 354 also fixes what "last day" means in practice: 11:59 p.m. Minnesota time for anything filed electronically, and whenever the court administrator's office is scheduled to close for anything filed another way.
Rule 354 also covers what happens when the ordinary counting rules run into a closed courthouse or a deadline running backward instead of forward. If the court administrator's office is unexpectedly inaccessible on the last day of a period, or during its last hour, the deadline moves to the same point on the next day the office is open and is not a weekend or holiday. And when a rule counts a period backward from an event, such as requiring a filing a set number of days before a hearing, "next day" is found by continuing to count backward rather than forward. A "legal holiday" under these rules means any day designated a holiday for the state or a state-wide branch of government, but it also means any day the United States Mail does not operate, whether or not that day carries an official state-holiday designation.
Two more provisions matter for anyone served by mail or late in the day. Adding a document to the United States mail gives the receiving party 3 extra days on top of whatever period applies, and service completed after 5:00 p.m. Minnesota time adds one more day, as if the paper had gone out the next morning instead.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I count a filing deadline that is measured in days?
Skip the day the event that starts the deadline happened, then count every day after that, including Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays, up through the last day. If that last day falls on a weekend or holiday, the deadline moves to the next day the court is open.
Can a short deadline skip weekends and holidays?
Only if another rule or statute expressly allows it, and only when the period is shorter than 7 days. Otherwise every deadline under these rules runs through weekends and holidays the same way.
What time does an electronic filing deadline expire?
An electronic filing is due by 11:59 p.m. Minnesota time on the last day of the period. A document filed any other way is due whenever the court administrator's office is scheduled to close that day.
Does mailing a document give the other party extra time to respond?
Yes. Service by United States mail adds 3 days to whatever period would otherwise apply, on top of the normal counting method.
What happens if a document is served late in the evening?
If service happens by a method other than mail and is completed after 5:00 p.m. Minnesota time, the rule adds one additional day to the prescribed period, treating the service as if it happened the next day.
Advisory Committee Comment – 2008 Amendment
In 2006 the Minnesota Supreme Court addressed the ambiguity in the rules and the ambiguity between the rules and statutes over how Columbus Day should be treated. Columbus Day is only optionally a state holiday (by statute the different branches can elect to treat it as a holiday) but is uniformly a federal and U.S. Mail holiday. Because the rules generally allow service by mail, the Court in Commandeur LLC v. Howard Hartry, Inc., 724 N.W.2d 508 (Minn. 2006), ruled that where the last day of a time period occurred on Columbus Day, service by mail permitted by the rules was timely if mailed on the following day on which mail service was available. The amendment to Rule 354.03 makes it clear that Columbus Day is a “legal holiday” for all purposes in these rules, even if that is not necessarily so by the statutory definition. Minn. Stat. § 645.44, subd. 5 (2008).