Although the next wave of significant proposed amendments to the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure are not likely to go into effect until December 2009, it is an appropriate time to focus on the details of these changes. The deadline for public comment on the proposals just passed on Friday, Feb. 15.
The most significant change under consideration to the federal appellate rules, and the rules governing procedure before the federal district courts, would alter the method of calculating deadlines. Currently, relatively short time periods — say 10 days — are calculated by omitting intervening weekends and holidays. That means a supposed 10-day period actually gives a litigant at least two weeks to complete the task in question. By contrast, longer periods, such as a 30-day period, are calculated without omitting intervening weekends and holidays. The rule changes under consideration would simplify the math by requiring that all days be counted in calculating deadlines, regardless of the period’s length. To make up for the issue of intervening weekends and holidays, shorter deadlines will be lengthened, in an effort to render the net impact of the rule change essentially neutral.
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