The time to respond to a motion for summary judgment is set by your court’s local rules, not by a single national deadline. In federal court, most districts give you somewhere between 14 and 28 days, with 21 days being common. State courts generally fall in a 14-to-30-day range. Whatever the number, miss it and the court can treat the moving party’s facts as undisputed and end your case without a trial, so the first thing to do when you’re served is pin down the exact deadline that applies to your case.
Why There Is No Single Federal Deadline
Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 56 is often blamed for setting a response window. It doesn’t. Rule 56 governs the standard for granting summary judgment and the evidence requirements, and leaves response timing to each district court’s local rules.1Cornell Law School. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 56 Your deadline depends on which federal courthouse is handling the case. Many districts land on 21 days, but others use 14, 28, or a different period entirely.
Rule 6(c)(1) separately requires that a written motion and notice of hearing be served at least 14 days before the hearing, but that provision is about the moving party’s notice obligation, not your response window.2Cornell Law School. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 6 A judge can also set a case-specific deadline through a scheduling order or case management plan, and that order overrides the default local rule. Check the scheduling order first, then the local rules.
How State Courts Handle It
State court deadlines for responding to a summary judgment motion generally run from about 14 to 30 days, depending on the jurisdiction’s rules of civil procedure. Some states start the clock on the date of service, others on the date of filing, and still others count backward from a scheduled hearing date.
A few states also adjust the deadline based on how the motion was served. Electronic service may add a couple of court days in some jurisdictions, while personal or hand delivery typically adds none. Because the variation is wide and the mechanics differ, your state’s code of civil procedure is the only reliable source.
Counting the Days in Federal Court
Federal courts apply Rule 6(a) when calculating any time period stated in days. Getting the count wrong by a single day can be fatal, so work through it carefully.
- Start counting the day after service. The day the motion arrives is day zero.
- Count every calendar day, including Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays.
- If the last day lands on a Saturday, Sunday, or federal holiday, the deadline rolls to the next business day.
Federal holidays for this purpose include the standard list (New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King Jr.’s Birthday, Presidents’ Day, Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day, Veterans’ Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas), plus any day the President or Congress declares a holiday. When the period runs forward from service, state holidays observed where your district court sits count as well.2Cornell Law School. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 6
One trap catches lawyers regularly: electronic service in federal court does not add extra days to your response period. A 2016 amendment to Rule 6(d) removed electronic service from the list of methods that trigger three additional days. Service by mail or by leaving a copy with the clerk still adds three days. E-filing and email service do not.2Cornell Law School. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 6
What Happens If You Miss the Deadline
A missed deadline doesn’t automatically cost you the case, but it puts you in serious trouble. The court can treat the motion as unopposed and rule on it based solely on what the moving party submitted. Under Rule 56(e), when a party fails to properly address another party’s factual assertions, the court may consider those facts undisputed and grant summary judgment if those undisputed facts support it.1Cornell Law School. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 56
Many courts will still examine the record on their own to confirm the movant actually met the summary judgment standard, and some take extra care with unrepresented parties, advising them of the need to respond and the risk of losing if no adequate response is filed. Don’t count on that. The practical effect of a missed deadline is that your strongest evidence and arguments never reach the judge, and the other side gets its best shot at winning without a trial.
Asking for More Time
If you need more time, you have two main options, and which one fits depends on why you need it.
Rule 6(b) Extensions
For reasons unrelated to incomplete discovery, file a motion to extend under Rule 6(b). Explain concretely why the extension is needed. “The case is complex” rarely moves a judge. “We received 12,000 pages of exhibits with the motion and need additional time to review and respond” is far more persuasive.
File before the original deadline expires. Asking afterward forces you to show “excusable neglect” instead of “good cause,” a much harder standard. If the other side agrees, say so in the motion; stipulated requests are far more likely to be granted. A record of meeting prior deadlines helps. Repeated extension requests erode credibility quickly.
Rule 56(d) When Discovery Is Incomplete
Sometimes a motion arrives before you’ve had a fair chance to develop the evidence you need. Rule 56(d) is the safety valve. If you can show by affidavit or declaration that you cannot present facts essential to your opposition for specific reasons, the court may defer or deny the motion, allow time to take discovery, or issue another appropriate order.1Cornell Law School. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 56
“Specific” is the operative word. A generic plea for more time will fail. Your affidavit should identify the facts you expect to uncover, explain why they are essential to opposing the motion, describe the discovery you’ve already attempted, and say why you haven’t been able to obtain the information yet. Courts respond much better to identified depositions or outstanding document requests than to a vague ask.
Filing a Rule 56(d) affidavit can also effectively extend your response deadline, because courts often stay the briefing schedule while deciding whether to allow additional discovery.
What a Timely Response Needs to Contain
Hitting the deadline matters only if what you file does its job. Local rules dictate the exact format, but most federal courts expect a package along these lines:
- A legal memorandum setting out why summary judgment should be denied, citing case law and statutes and explaining why the disputed facts matter to the outcome.
- A statement of disputed facts that responds point by point to the movant’s statement of undisputed facts, with each contested fact tied to a specific citation in the record.
- Declarations or affidavits from people with firsthand knowledge. Rule 56(c)(4) requires that these be based on personal knowledge, contain facts admissible in evidence, and show the person is competent to testify about what’s described.1Cornell Law School. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 56
- Supporting exhibits: deposition transcripts, documents, emails, contracts, and other record evidence that backs up your disputed facts.
Every fact you rely on needs a citation pointing to the exact place in the record, down to the page or paragraph. Courts have no obligation to hunt through filings looking for evidence you didn’t cite. The deemed-admitted problem under Rule 56(e) is where self-represented parties and even experienced lawyers get burned: respond to each numbered fact individually, and back each response with a record citation. Argument is not evidence at this stage.