When must the designated appellant serve and file its cross-appeal principal brief?

Confirm that a cross-appeal was filed.

Establish the Rule 28.1(b) appellant, including any agreement or court order.

Verify actual record filing under Rule 12(c).

Read actual briefing directions and prepare the principal brief.

1. Establish the Rule 28.1 appellant role.
2. Verify and exclude the record-filing day.
3. Count forty calendar days.
4. Check final-day holidays, inaccessibility and actual directions.

Exclude the verified record-filing day and count forty calendar days under Rule 26(a)(1). If the final day is Saturday, Sunday or a legal holiday, continue to the next open day. The filing-based period does not attract Rule 26(c) merely because a record copy was served.

Rule 26(a)(6) includes the listed federal holidays and days declared holidays by the President or Congress. For periods after an event, it also includes holidays declared by the state of the district court that rendered the challenged judgment or order, or the circuit clerk’s principal office. Establish the actual applicable calendar and inaccessibility. The national preset does not infer additional state holidays or granted relief.

Fictitious example

In a fictitious cross-appeal, the record is filed July 8, 2026. The Rule 28.1 appellant role is already established. Exclude July 8 and count forty days. August 17 is the assumed open final day, without another state holiday, inaccessibility or different direction.

Fictitious dates. Establish the actual cross-appeal role and directions separately. The date does not prove accepted filing, required service or sufficient brief contents.

Role designation

Rule 28.1(b) ordinarily designates the first notice filer as appellant. For same-day notices, the plaintiff below is appellant. Agreement or court order may modify these designations.

Serve and file

Rule 28.1(f)(1) requires both service and filing of the appellant’s principal brief within the applicable period.

Original principal brief

Rule 28.1(c)(1) addresses the appellant’s principal brief. Later response and reply stages have distinct contents and service-based triggers.

Actual record filing

Under Rule 12(c), the circuit clerk files the received record, partial record or district clerk certificate and notifies the parties of the filing date. Notice filing is a separate event.

• This guide does not read local rules or orders, infer service or delivery, determine an appeal’s merits or grant relief.
• Confirm actual briefing roles, separate service and current circuit requirements before using a national default.

• Verify the filed cross-appeal and actual appellant role.
• Read any role agreement or court order.
• Verify actual record filing.
• Prepare the principal brief under the applicable contents requirements.
• Serve and file it within the actual period and preserve proof.
• Court-of-appeals electronic filing ends at midnight in the circuit clerk’s principal-office time zone under Rule 26(a)(4)(B), unless a different applicable time controls. Ordinary paper filing requires clerk receipt by scheduled closure. Rule 25(a)(2)(A)(ii) separately permits timely mailing or qualifying dispatch of a brief or appendix. Motions do not automatically receive that exception. Confirm actual local instructions, permitted channels and separate service proof.