When must a party respond to a Chancery document request?

Service of the request for production or inspection

Read each item, the inspection date and the requested production form. A written response does not itself complete every production obligation.

Responsible actor. The party served with a Rule 34 request for production or inspection. Use the ordinary thirty-day written-response branch without a later early-defendant allowance. Incoming service was not exclusively by mail and no different schedule applies.

1. Use the ordinary thirty-day written-response branch without a later early-defendant allowance. Incoming service was not exclusively by mail and no different schedule applies.
2. Exclude the trigger day and count 30 calendar days under Rule 6(a)(1). The less-than-11-day exclusion does not apply. Check the final weekend, legal holiday and actual Register accessibility.
3. Check the actual holidays, additional closures and applicable electronic or paper boundary.
4. Serve the item-specific written response and required notice of service. Preserve the separately established production or inspection arrangements.

Rule 6(a)(1) excludes the event day. Periods below eleven days exclude intermediate Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays; eleven days or more include them. A final weekend or legal holiday moves forward for an after-event period and backward for a before-event period. Rule 6(a)(3) separately addresses actual Register inaccessibility for filings. Rule 6(a)(5) includes section 501 holidays and days declared by the Governor. Good Friday and Thanksgiving Friday are Delaware holidays. Sunday July 4, 2027 is observed Monday July 5. Check county-specific Sussex Return Day and additional actual closures separately; the bundled calendar does not determine those filing conditions.

Rule 6(c) adds three calendar days after the ordinary Rule 6(a) period only for an act measured after service made exclusively by mail. It applies to party acts, not Court acts. Electronic service, an entry-based clock and a filing-based clock do not acquire that addition merely because a paper copy is mailed. These calculations show the disclosed nonexclusive-mail base component; they do not implement the mail-only addition or infer service effectiveness.

These reviewed calculators use the official edition current as of June 1, 2026. Events before that date and backward periods crossing before that date receive no computed or paid date. This is publication coverage, not a finding that an actual procedural act is late. Historical editions, emergency measures, court-modified dates and actual additional closures require separate review.

Fictitious example

Use the ordinary thirty-day written-response branch without a later early-defendant allowance. Incoming service was not exclusively by mail and no different schedule applies. Ordinary current-edition facts, no changed order and no exclusively mailed incoming service.

Fictitious current-edition facts. This is the disclosed component with no altered order or additional actual closure. It does not establish effective service, completed filing, judicial action or procedural entitlement. Exclusively mailed incoming-service additions require separate review.

Withholding disclosure

An objection must state whether responsive material is or will be withheld on that basis. The response carries a supplementation duty.

Production deadline

Copy production follows the inspection time, another reasonable response-specified time or an agreed time under the rule.

Mail-only service and actual court schedule

Rule 6(c) adds three calendar days after the ordinary Rule 6(a) period only for an act measured after service made exclusively by mail. It applies to party acts, not Court acts. Electronic service, an entry-based clock and a filing-based clock do not acquire that addition merely because a paper copy is mailed. These calculations show the disclosed nonexclusive-mail base component; they do not implement the mail-only addition or infer service effectiveness.

Current edition and historical scope

These reviewed calculators use the official edition current as of June 1, 2026. Events before that date and backward periods crossing before that date receive no computed or paid date. This is publication coverage, not a finding that an actual procedural act is late. Historical editions, emergency measures, court-modified dates and actual additional closures require separate review.

• Use the ordinary thirty-day written-response branch without a later early-defendant allowance. Incoming service was not exclusively by mail and no different schedule applies.
• The base calculation does not obtain an extension, resolve a different branch or establish that the responsible actor completed the required act.

• Service of the request for production or inspection
• Read each item, the inspection date and the requested production form. A written response does not itself complete every production obligation.
• An objection must state whether responsive material is or will be withheld on that basis. The response carries a supplementation duty.
• Copy production follows the inspection time, another reasonable response-specified time or an agreed time under the rule.
• Serve the item-specific written response and required notice of service. Preserve the separately established production or inspection arrangements.
• For electronic service and filing, Rule 5(d) uses midnight for an original complaint, notice of appeal, or paper in a summary proceeding or an action ordered expedited. Other papers in other actions must be served or filed by 5:00 p.m. Use Delaware local court time and preserve actual completed transmission and docket treatment. Do not replace the ordinary boundary with a federal midnight rule. Rule 5(c)(2)(B) permits self-represented delivery to the Register with the required fee, deemed filed when delivered. Check actual office availability. Rule 5(e) permits the Court, on satisfactory proof, to deem an unsuccessful electronic attempt timely; relief is not automatic.