When must I file and serve a bill of costs in the court of appeals?

Verify appellate judgment entry, rather than opinion receipt or mandate issue.

Read costs allocation and entitlement before selecting the items claimed.

A later opponent-objection clock begins from bill service. It does not replace this judgment-entry trigger.

1. Verify appellate judgment entry under Rule 36(a).
2. Exclude that entry day.
3. Count fourteen calendar days.
4. Check the final-day holidays, inaccessibility and actual directions.

Exclude the verified triggering day and count every calendar day under FRAP 26(a)(1). The last day rolls forward if it is a Saturday, Sunday or legal holiday. An actual order controls any granted change.

FRAP 26(a)(6) includes the listed federal holidays, days declared holidays by the President or Congress, and for a period after an event, additional holidays declared by the state where the challenged district court or circuit clerk’s principal office is located. Check the applicable state, actual inaccessibility and orders. The national calendar does not infer those facts.

Fictitious example

A fictitious court-of-appeals judgment is entered on July 6, 2026. Exclude July 6. Fourteen calendar days ends on Monday, July 20. Assume no additional state holiday, inaccessibility or different order.

Fictitious dates. Assume no additional state holiday, inaccessibility or different court order.

Permitted circuit-court items

Rule 39(e)(1) identifies necessary brief, appendix or authorized record copies, the docketing fee and a filing fee paid in the court of appeals.

Local copying rate

Rule 39(e)(2) requires each circuit’s local rule to set the maximum copying rate within its stated constraints. This guide does not supply a rate.

Mandate and later statement

Under Rule 39(e)(3)(C), taxing costs must not delay mandate issue. The district clerk adds a later statement or amendment at the circuit clerk’s request.

Separate district-court items

Rule 39(f) covers record preparation/transmission, a needed reporter’s transcript, security premiums and the notice-of-appeal fee in the district court.

• This guide does not decide costs entitlement, infer a local copying rate, read orders or grant an extension.
• District-court taxation and attorney-fee claims require their own procedures.

• Verify judgment entry, costs allocation and entitlement.
• Select only the permitted court-of-appeals costs.
• Apply the current circuit copying-rate rule.
• Itemize and verify the bill, file with the circuit clerk and separately serve it.
• Preserve service evidence for any later objections.
• For electronic filing in the court of appeals, FRAP 26(a)(4)(B) uses midnight in the time zone of the circuit clerk’s principal office. Paper filing ordinarily ends when that office is scheduled to close. For ordinary nonelectronic bill or motion filing, the circuit clerk must receive the paper. The brief/appendix dispatch exception is separate. Check FRAP 25, current local filing requirements, actual inaccessibility and separate service. Do not substitute the district court’s electronic time zone.