When is the Delaware opening brief due after record filing?

In the Rule 15(a)(i) cases outside the no-transcript branch, serve and file the appellant’s brief and appendix within thirty days after filing of the record. Establish the record-filing event and any rule or Court order providing another schedule.

Responsible actor. The appellant in the record-filing branch.

Check whether the no-transcript branch actually applies.

Obtain the docket evidence of record filing.

Read the actual briefing order and transcript-processing history.

Use an established record-filing event in the ordinary transcript branch. Exclude a different order and the accepted-interlocutory transcript-log commencement procedure.

1. Filing of the record for the ordinary Rule 15(a)(i) transcript branch
2. Exclude the established event day and count the stated component under Rule 11(a). No participant service addition is applied to this nonservice event.
3. Serve and file the opening brief and appendix with the required Rule 14 judgment and rationale. Complete any next-business-day copies required for an eFiled brief.

Rule 11(a) excludes the event day. A prescribed period below seven days excludes intermediate Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays. Seven days and longer count those intermediate days. A final Saturday, Sunday, legal holiday or actual Clerk closure receives the stated next-open-day treatment. A backward five-day motion component counts earlier eligible days to preserve its required lead. Do not apply the separate Chancery or Superior Court eleven-day threshold.

The 2026 named calendar follows the Court’s published statewide holidays. The 2027 dates are projections of 1 Del. C. § 501 and its fixed-holiday observation rule. December 31, 2027 is the observed New Year holiday for Saturday, January 1, 2028. These dates do not confirm future amendments, Governor or Chief Justice appointments or actual additional closures. Sussex Return Day afternoon is not treated as a statewide full-day Supreme Court closure. Review any actual additional closure separately.

Rule 11(c) adds three days to a participant’s prescribed period after incoming service by mail or eFiling. Personal service adds none. The addition enters the period before Rule 11(a) counting and final-day treatment. It does not apply to Court acts or to an entry, filing, issuance or acceptance event merely because a copy is served. Rule 10(b) completes mail service on mailing. Rule 10.1(h) treats authorized electronic service like mail for the addition. A convenience email notification under Rule 10.2(6)(d) is not the service event.

Reviewed coverage uses the retained Supreme Court compilation current through February 2, 2026, for established events on or after that compilation boundary and final dates through December 31, 2027. The index label is not a new effective date for every civil rule. Historical events, backward periods crossing that boundary, later dates, changed orders and actual additional closures require separate review. No computed or paid date is supplied for an input outside that coverage. This boundary does not establish that an actual act is late.

Fictitious example

Fictitious established current-edition event. Personal service where the period runs from service. No altered order or additional closure.

Fictitious established facts. The example does not establish applicability, actual service, completed filing, an extension, entitlement or a special closure. Use an established record-filing event in the ordinary transcript branch. Exclude a different order and the accepted-interlocutory transcript-log commencement procedure.

Not transcript ordering

A transcript designation or cost payment does not establish filing of the record. The Court docket supplies the event needed here.

Interlocutory receipt differs

After acceptance under Rule 42, a designated transcript uses Supreme Court receipt of the reporter’s final transcript log entry to commence that schedule.

Transcript delays

Rule 9 addresses transcript ordering and sanctions. A delayed transcript does not itself establish an approved briefing extension.

Participant service and Court acts

Rule 11(c) adds three days to a participant’s prescribed period after incoming service by mail or eFiling. Personal service adds none. The addition enters the period before Rule 11(a) counting and final-day treatment. It does not apply to Court acts or to an entry, filing, issuance or acceptance event merely because a copy is served. Rule 10(b) completes mail service on mailing. Rule 10.1(h) treats authorized electronic service like mail for the addition. A convenience email notification under Rule 10.2(6)(d) is not the service event.

Compilation and calendar coverage

Reviewed coverage uses the retained Supreme Court compilation current through February 2, 2026, for established events on or after that compilation boundary and final dates through December 31, 2027. The index label is not a new effective date for every civil rule. Historical events, backward periods crossing that boundary, later dates, changed orders and actual additional closures require separate review. No computed or paid date is supplied for an input outside that coverage. This boundary does not establish that an actual act is late.

• Use an established record-filing event in the ordinary transcript branch. Exclude a different order and the accepted-interlocutory transcript-log commencement procedure.
• The stated component does not obtain an extension, establish completed acts or decide an excluded procedural branch.

• Check whether the no-transcript branch actually applies.
• Obtain the docket evidence of record filing.
• Read the actual briefing order and transcript-processing history.
• A transcript designation or cost payment does not establish filing of the record. The Court docket supplies the event needed here.
• After acceptance under Rule 42, a designated transcript uses Supreme Court receipt of the reporter’s final transcript log entry to commence that schedule.
• Rule 9 addresses transcript ordering and sanctions. A delayed transcript does not itself establish an approved briefing extension.
• For the paper participants described in Rule 10, serve the required recipients and complete filing by actual Clerk or Deputy Clerk receipt during regular business hours. Mailing a filing on the final day does not establish receipt. Registered eFiling under Rules 10.1 and 10.2 uses the recorded completed transaction. In nonexpedited cases, ordinary electronic filings must finish by 5 p.m. Eastern Time. Notices of appeal and electronic filings in expedited cases must finish before midnight Eastern Time. Electronic service requires selection of recipients and submission through File & Serve. Preserve the receipt identifying date, time, method and recipients. The email notification alone is not service. Rule 10.2(10) permits relief for specified filing or service errors only upon satisfactory proof and a Court order; no automatic extension is calculated. Rule 10.2(3) requires the paper copies of an eFiled brief by the next business day. Their cover must say COPY and include the electronic document ID. Check Rule 10(d), any specific copy provision and the actual Court direction. These copies do not replace timely electronic filing or required party service.