ga-deadlines

name	ga-deadlines
description	Use when the user asks about timing or deadlines in a Georgia civil case. Triggers include "when is my answer due in Georgia", "how many days to respond in Georgia", "30 days to respond", "compute a deadline", "Georgia statute of limitations credit card", "what's the SOL on a contract in Georgia", "Georgia court holidays", "court-day vs calendar-day in Georgia", "discovery response deadline Georgia", "motion response deadline", "default deadline Georgia", "notice of appeal 30 days Georgia", "dispossessory answer deadline", "is my debt too old to sue on in Georgia". Computes calendar-day and court-day deadlines under O.C.G.A. § 1-3-1(d)(3) (incorporated into the Civil Practice Act by O.C.G.A. § 9-11-6(a)), excludes Georgia legal holidays under O.C.G.A. § 1-4-1, applies the Saturday / Sunday / holiday roll-forward and the sub-7-day exclusion of intermediate weekends and holidays, and maps named civil rules and statutes of limitation to days plus authority via the bundled calendar script.
version	0.2.0

Georgia Case Deadlines

NOT LEGAL ADVICE. This skill computes deadlines. Always independently verify in the cited rule or statute and confirm the court's actual holiday closures and the assigned judge's standing orders before treating any computed date as final.

Use this skill to compute deadlines under Georgia's time-computation rule (O.C.G.A. § 1-3-1(d)(3), incorporated into the Civil Practice Act by O.C.G.A. § 9-11-6(a)), the Georgia legal-holiday list (O.C.G.A. § 1-4-1), and the named civil-procedure and statute-of-limitation rules encoded in scripts/case-calendar.py.

Time computation — O.C.G.A. § 1-3-1(d)(3) / § 9-11-6(a)

Georgia counts time intervals stated in its statutes and rules as follows:

1. Exclude the first day — the day of the triggering event (e.g., the day of service).
2. Count every intermediate calendar day for periods of 7 days or more, then adjust only the last day.
3. Count the last day, unless it falls on a Saturday, Sunday, or O.C.G.A. § 1-4-1 legal holiday — in which case the period runs through the next business day.
4. For a prescribed period of fewer than 7 days, exclude intermediate Saturdays, Sundays, and legal holidays from the count (effectively count only business days).

The roll-forward at the end can only extend a deadline; it never shortens one. A "minus" period (e.g., a notice that must be served a minimum number of days before an event) counts backward under the same rule.

The +3-days-for-mail/e-mail rule — O.C.G.A. § 9-11-6(e)

When a party must act within a prescribed period after service of a paper and that paper was served by mail or by e-mail, three days are added to the prescribed period (the three days extend the period before the end-of-period weekend/holiday roll-forward). Two limits to flag:

• It applies only to post-complaint papers — not to service of the original summons and complaint (so the 30-day answer period is not extended by mailing the complaint).
• It is irrelevant to statutes of limitation.

scripts/case-calendar.py --mail-service applies the +3 days to a forward response period (e.g., a discovery response served by mail: --rule rfp-response --mail-service).

Georgia legal holidays — O.C.G.A. § 1-4-1

Georgia sets exactly thirteen state-holiday days each year by gubernatorial proclamation. O.C.G.A. § 1-4-1(a) adopts the federal public holidays as they existed on January 1, 2022, plus the days the Governor proclaims; the statute also requires the Governor to include one of January 19 / April 26 / June 3 among the proclaimed days (the formerly named anchors, now published unlabeled as "State Holiday").

Predictable-rule holidays (auto-computed by the script)

Holiday	Date
New Year's Day	January 1
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day	3rd Monday in January
Memorial Day	Last Monday in May
Juneteenth	June 19 (observed in Georgia)
Independence Day	July 4
Labor Day	1st Monday in September
Columbus Day	2nd Monday in October (observed; not renamed)
Veterans Day	November 11
Thanksgiving Day	4th Thursday in November
Day after Thanksgiving	Friday after Thanksgiving (published "State Holiday")
Christmas Day	December 25

Fixed-date holidays follow federal observance: a Saturday holiday shifts to the preceding Friday; a Sunday holiday shifts to the following Monday.

Floating "State Holiday" days (NOT auto-computed — verify each year)

These are proclamation-driven and vary year to year, so the script does not include them:

• Washington's Birthday — statutorily a February federal holiday, but Georgia defers its observance to the year-end cluster (often December 24).
• The spring "State Holiday" — the date formerly published as Confederate Memorial Day, statutorily anchored near April 26.
• In some years a second floating "State Holiday."

⚠ Verify late-April and late-December deadlines. If a computed deadline lands on or near late April or late December, confirm the court's actual closure against the per-year schedule published at georgia.gov / the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC), because a floated holiday can push a rollover the script does not capture.

Named civil rules — quick reference

Run python3 scripts/case-calendar.py --rules for the canonical list. Most commonly invoked (the script holds the exact day counts):

Rule key	What it computes	Authority
answer-due	Answer after service of summons & complaint	O.C.G.A. § 9-11-12(a)
open-default-as-of-right	Open the default as of right (pay costs)	O.C.G.A. § 9-11-55(a)
amended-pleading-response	Respond to an amended pleading	O.C.G.A. § 9-11-15(a)
interrogatory-response	Interrogatory answers due	O.C.G.A. § 9-11-33(a)
interrogatory-response-with-summons	Interrogatories served with summons	O.C.G.A. § 9-11-33(a)
rfp-response	Response to Request for Production	O.C.G.A. § 9-11-34(b)
rfp-response-with-summons	RFP served with summons	O.C.G.A. § 9-11-34(b)
rfa-response	Response to Request for Admission (else deemed admitted)	O.C.G.A. § 9-11-36(a)
rfa-response-with-summons	RFA served with summons (else deemed admitted)	O.C.G.A. § 9-11-36(a)
sj-motion-before-hearing	SJ motion must be served before hearing	O.C.G.A. § 9-11-56(c)
motion-response	Response to a motion (typical)	USCR 6.2
dispossessory-answer	Answer a dispossessory (eviction) summons	O.C.G.A. § 44-7-51(b)
dispossessory-writ	Writ of possession effective after judgment	O.C.G.A. § 44-7-55(a)
motion-new-trial	Motion for new trial	O.C.G.A. § 5-5-40(a)
motion-jnov	Motion for JNOV	O.C.G.A. § 9-11-50(b)
notice-of-appeal	Notice of appeal	O.C.G.A. § 5-6-38(a)
set-aside-judgment	Motion to set aside (certain grounds)	O.C.G.A. § 9-11-60(f)
judgment-dormancy	Judgment becomes dormant	O.C.G.A. § 9-12-60
revive-dormant-judgment	Revive a dormant judgment	O.C.G.A. § 9-12-61
fbpa-demand	FBPA written demand before filing suit	O.C.G.A. § 10-1-399(b)

Key qualitative points the day counts encode:

• Answer: due 30 days after service (O.C.G.A. § 9-11-12(a)).
• Default: a case in default may be opened as of right (on payment of costs) within 15 days after default (O.C.G.A. § 9-11-55(a)); after that, only on the statutory showing.
• Discovery responses: 30 days, but a defendant served with the summons gets 45 days after service of the summons (O.C.G.A. §§ 9-11-33 / 9-11-34 / 9-11-36). Unanswered requests for admission are deemed admitted (O.C.G.A. § 9-11-36(a)).
• Summary judgment: the motion must be served at least 30 days before the hearing (O.C.G.A. § 9-11-56(c)).
• Dispossessory: the tenant has 7 days from service to answer (O.C.G.A. § 44-7-51(b)) — a sub-7-day-adjacent window where weekend / holiday handling matters.
• Post-judgment: motion for new trial, JNOV, and notice of appeal are each 30 days (O.C.G.A. §§ 5-5-40, 9-11-50(b), 5-6-38(a)).
• Dormancy / revival: a judgment goes dormant after 7 years (O.C.G.A. § 9-12-60) and may be revived within 3 years of dormancy (O.C.G.A. § 9-12-61).
• FBPA: a written demand for relief must be delivered at least 30 days before filing suit (O.C.G.A. § 10-1-399(b)); it is a prerequisite and does not toll the SOL.

Statute of limitations — quick map

The day counts for multi-year SOLs are approximate (~365.25/yr); always confirm the exact calendar date and check tolling/revival.

Claim type	SOL	Authority	Rule key
Simple written contract	6 years	O.C.G.A. § 9-3-24	sol-written-contract
Credit-card debt (written cardmember agreement)	6 years	O.C.G.A. § 9-3-24	sol-credit-card
Open account / oral / implied	4 years	O.C.G.A. § 9-3-25	sol-open-account
Other contract (catch-all)	4 years	O.C.G.A. § 9-3-26	sol-contract-catchall
Personal injury	2 years	O.C.G.A. § 9-3-33	sol-personal-injury
Defamation / injury to reputation	1 year	O.C.G.A. § 9-3-33	sol-defamation
Trespass / damage to realty	4 years	O.C.G.A. § 9-3-30	sol-realty
Injury to / conversion / recovery of personalty	4 years	O.C.G.A. §§ 9-3-31, 9-3-32	sol-personalty
Fair Business Practices Act	2 years	O.C.G.A. § 10-1-401	sol-fbpa
FDCPA	1 year	15 U.S.C. § 1692k(d)	sol-fdcpa
FCRA	2 years (from discovery; 5-yr repose)	15 U.S.C. § 1681p	sol-fcra-discovery
TILA	1 year	15 U.S.C. § 1640(e)	sol-tila

Credit-card characterization — the live fight

A credit-card claim runs 6 years as a written contract when the plaintiff can produce the cardmember agreement and frame the card's use as acceptance of those written terms (O.C.G.A. § 9-3-24). Where a debt buyer cannot produce the written agreement and pleads the claim as an open account or account stated, the 4-year bar of O.C.G.A. § 9-3-25 applies — often paired with a proof / foundation defect. Identify which theory the complaint actually pleads before computing the bar.

Tolling and revival

• Fraud: O.C.G.A. § 9-3-96 tolls the period until the fraud is (or reasonably should have been) discovered.
• New promise: a new promise to pay a debt must be in writing to revive a barred claim (O.C.G.A. § 9-3-110).
• Part payment: a partial payment is treated as a new promise only when made on written evidence of the debt (O.C.G.A. § 9-3-112) — central in debt-buyer cases that rely on a recent payment to restart the clock.

Examples

"When is my answer due if I was served on Tuesday, April 15, 2025?"

$ python3 scripts/case-calendar.py --from 2025-04-15 --rule answer-due
Answer due — 30 days after service of summons and complaint
Deadline: ...
  From: Tuesday, April 15, 2025
  30 calendar days after
  Authority: O.C.G.A. § 9-11-12(a)

"Is a credit-card debt that defaulted on March 15, 2019 time-barred?"

$ python3 scripts/case-calendar.py --from 2019-03-15 --rule sol-credit-card
SOL — credit-card debt on a written cardmember agreement ...
  From: Saturday, March 15, 2019
  ~6 years after
  Authority: O.C.G.A. § 9-3-24

If the plaintiff cannot produce the written agreement, also compute the 4-year open-account bar:

$ python3 scripts/case-calendar.py --from 2019-03-15 --rule sol-open-account

"List every named rule the calculator knows."

$ python3 scripts/case-calendar.py --rules

You can also compute an arbitrary interval:

$ python3 scripts/case-calendar.py --from 2025-04-15 --days 30 --mode calendar
$ python3 scripts/case-calendar.py --from 2025-04-15 --days 5 --mode court

How ga-deadlines composes with the script

The skill body above is the reference. The arithmetic lives in scripts/case-calendar.py, which:

• Encodes the predictable O.C.G.A. § 1-4-1 holidays and computes ga_holidays(year) for any year
• Implements the § 1-3-1(d)(3) roll-forward and the sub-7-day exclusion of intermediate weekends and holidays
• Provides is_court_day(d), add_calendar_days, add_court_days
• Exposes a RULES dictionary mapping named keys to (days, mode, description, authority)

Use --rules for the canonical list and --from YYYY-MM-DD --rule <key> for any specific computation.

Composition

• For first-response timing (answer, default, defenses): ga-first-30-days
• For discovery-response and motion timing: ga-discovery
• For debt-claim SOL and credit-card characterization: ga-consumer-debt
• For dormancy, revival, and garnishment windows: ga-post-judgment
• For format of the resulting filing: ga-statewide-format
• For citation and date verification: ga-fact-check