When must the Delaware trial court decide interlocutory certification?

Rule 42(c)(iii) directs a certification or refusal order within ten days after filing of a response. If no response is filed, it uses twenty days after filing of the application. The actor is the trial court, and the two branches have different events and periods.

Responsible actor. The trial court deciding whether to certify interlocutory review.

Obtain the filed application and docket.

Establish whether and when a response was filed.

Locate the actual certification or refusal order and its reasons.

Establish whether a response was filed and which Rule 42(c)(iii) branch applies. The retained ten-day single-trigger preset does not reproduce the alternative twenty-day branch.

1. Response filing, or application filing where no response is filed
2. Establish each event, period and procedural branch described on this page before applying Rule 11. This guide supplies no single computed date.
3. The trial court enters a certification or refusal order substantially in Official Form L, identifying its basis and applicable Rule 42(b) criteria. The applicant still has separate Supreme Court obligations.

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 alternatives. With a filed response, the Court action period runs ten days from response filing. Without a response, it runs twenty days from application filing. Participant service additions do not apply to the Court act. Silence does not certify the appeal or extend the applicant’s independent notice obligation. This guide supplies no computed date.

A court act with response and no-response branches. The single ten-day preset does not establish the alternative event or twenty-day period, so no computed date is published.

No-response branch

Without a filed response, the prescribed event is application filing and the period is twenty days. Do not add ten to the application event.

No participant service addition

Rule 11(c) expressly excludes actions taken by the Court. Mail or eFiling service does not add three days to this judicial decision component.

Independent notice requirement

The applicant must still meet the thirty-day Supreme Court notice obligation. Trial-court inaction does not itself extend that period.

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.

• Establish whether a response was filed and which Rule 42(c)(iii) branch applies. The retained ten-day single-trigger preset does not reproduce the alternative twenty-day branch.
• A court act with response and no-response branches. The single ten-day preset does not establish the alternative event or twenty-day period, so no computed date is published.

• Obtain the filed application and docket.
• Establish whether and when a response was filed.
• Locate the actual certification or refusal order and its reasons.
• Without a filed response, the prescribed event is application filing and the period is twenty days. Do not add ten to the application event.
• Rule 11(c) expressly excludes actions taken by the Court. Mail or eFiling service does not add three days to this judicial decision component.
• The applicant must still meet the thirty-day Supreme Court notice obligation. Trial-court inaction does not itself extend that period.
• Rule 42(c)(iii) describes entry of the trial court’s certification or refusal order. Preserve that entered order and distinguish it from participant filing or service. The applicant’s separate original and supplementary Supreme Court notice duties remain applicable. This guide does not assign the participant eFiling cutoff or a service addition to the Court act.