When must a defendant remove a case, or a party seek procedural remand?

Section 1446 supplies separate 30-day removal periods for an established initial-service event, each later-served defendant, and a qualifying later paper. Section 1447(c) gives 30 days after notice-of-removal filing for a procedural remand motion. These are separate acts and triggers.

Responsible actor. The removing defendant for section 1446; the party moving for procedural remand for section 1447(c).

For the ordinary simultaneous-service branch, use valid service of summons and complaint. Murphy Brothers rejects a courtesy complaint copy, unattended by formal service, as the initial clock trigger.

Murphy Brothers describes different summons and complaint sequences. After summons service, later receipt of the complaint can start time. Where complaint service is unnecessary, establish its availability and the applicable summons sequence. Do not choose an informal email merely because it arrived first.

Each later-served defendant receives its own section 1446(b)(2)(B) period. A qualifying amended pleading, motion, order or other paper starts section 1446(b)(3) only when the initial pleading was not removable and that paper first makes removability ascertainable.

For a procedural remand motion, use filing of the notice under section 1446(a). Neither service of that notice nor entry of a later remand order is the section 1447(c) trigger.

Ordinary section 1446(b)(1), (b)(2)(B) or (b)(3) removal, or section 1447(c) procedural remand, after the correct branch and operative event are established. The tool does not decide removability or service validity.

1. Identify the governing statutory branch and responsible actor.
2. Establish the operative event from the docket, service evidence or legally determined commencement.
3. Exclude the trigger date and apply only the supported ordinary period.
4. Check the last day, court-specific closures, filing method, orders and every separate controlling clock.

FRCP 6(a)(1) excludes the established event day and counts intermediate weekends and holidays. Its last-day rule continues a Saturday, Sunday or legal-holiday end to the next qualifying day. The rule applies to statutory periods without their own computation method.

FRCP 6(a)(6) includes the listed federal holidays, holidays declared by the President or Congress and, for forward periods, holidays declared by the state where the district court sits. Actual clerk inaccessibility has its separate Rule 6(a)(3) treatment unless the court orders otherwise. Verify local closures and orders rather than assuming the national calendar proves them.

Fictitious example

Assume an initially removable ordinary case and valid simultaneous service of summons and complaint on July 6, 2026. No earlier informal courtesy copy controls.

Fictitious established facts. These examples do not establish eligibility, effective service, relief or a direction.

Consent and later defendants

Where removal is solely under section 1441(a), all properly joined and served defendants must join or consent. An earlier-served defendant may consent to a later-served defendant’s removal despite not initiating its own removal.

Later paper and diversity cap

The later-paper branch remains subject to section 1446(c). Check any applicable one-year cap separately; the thirty-day calculation cannot override it.

Subject-matter jurisdiction

The procedural thirty-day remand limit does not govern lack of subject-matter jurisdiction. Section 1447(c) requires remand if that lack appears before final judgment.

Special removal statutes excluded

Do not use this ordinary model for a special statutory removal procedure. The retained subsequent-law review identifies 10 U.S.C. 6324(c) atomic-testing contractor removal by the Attorney General before trial. This guide makes no claim that no other exception exists.

• Ordinary section 1446(b)(1), (b)(2)(B) or (b)(3) removal, or section 1447(c) procedural remand, after the correct branch and operative event are established. The tool does not decide removability or service validity.
• Removal notice, later-defendant removal, later-paper removal and procedural remand share a thirty-day number. Their actors, operative events and jurisdictional qualifications differ.

• Select removal or procedural remand before entering a date.
• Preserve valid service records, each defendant’s documents and the relevant state-law service sequence.
• For later-paper removal, identify the first qualifying paper and proof of receipt.
• Check federal jurisdiction, required consent and any separate one-year cap or special statutory procedure.
• File a removal notice in the federal district and division embracing the state action, with section 1446(a) attachments.
• After filing, promptly notify adverse parties and file a copy with the state clerk under section 1446(d).
• For procedural remand, preserve the federal notice-filing docket entry and the specific procedural defect.
• Unless a statute, local rule or order sets a different time, district-court electronic filing ends at midnight in the court’s time zone. Other filing ends when the clerk’s office is scheduled to close. Check actual filing acceptance, required attachments, service and applicable orders.