When must I object to an appellate bill of costs?

Establish when the bill of costs was served and preserve its proof of service.

Identify whether service was electronic and whether actual delivery occurred on the date stated in the service proof.

Distinguish bill service from appellate judgment entry, the bill’s filing date and mandate issue.

Read any actual court extension. A requested extension does not prove a grant.

1. Establish service of the bill and read its proof of service.
2. Check electronic service and actual delivery on the stated date.
3. Count the base period and any applicable addition separately.
4. Read any actual extension and complete filing.

FRAP 26(c) requires the actual service conditions. A service date alone does not establish whether three added days apply.

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.

The current preset does not collect the service facts or implement the possible added days. No computed example or paid result is published.

Service-dependent added days

Rule 26(c) adds three calendar days after the base period otherwise expires unless the paper was served electronically or delivered on the date stated in the proof of service.

Order extending objections

Rule 39(e)(3)(B) expressly allows the court to extend the objections time. Preserve the actual order and its scope.

Allocation is separate

A challenge to allocation under Rule 39(b) follows judgment entry. Objections to the served bill have their own service trigger.

Mandate issue

Rule 39(e)(3)(C) prevents delaying the mandate for costs taxation. Later costs statements can be added on the circuit clerk’s request.

• 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.

• Preserve bill service and its proof.
• Verify electronic service and actual delivery facts.
• Review Rule 26(c) before selecting the final objections date.
• Read any actual extension and complete filing and separate service.
• 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.