When must I file a conditional cross-petition for certiorari?

Establish when the original case was placed on the Supreme Court docket. A petition’s filing or service date is not necessarily its docketing date.

Confirm that a respondent seeks to cross-petition to review the judgment addressed by the original petition. The petition must comply in all respects with Rule 14.

Rule 13.4 makes consideration of an otherwise untimely conditional cross-petition depend on granting the original petition. It does not make docketing a grant of review.

1. Use the original case’s Supreme Court docketing date, not the lower-court judgment or petition-service date.
2. Exclude the established trigger day.
3. Count 30 calendar days.
4. Apply Rule 30.1 final-day adjustment.
5. Complete the required filing by that date.

Supreme Court Rule 30.1 excludes the trigger day and includes every intermediate calendar day. For periods shorter than seven days it excludes intermediate closed days. Each fixed period reviewed here is at least seven days.

Rule 12.5 expressly makes this time nonextendable. Neither requesting relief nor another party’s extension establishes extra time.

If the final day is Saturday, Sunday, a federal legal holiday listed in 5 U.S.C. 6103 or a Court-building closure ordered by the Court or Chief Justice, Rule 30.1 continues the period to the next day that is none of those. Check actual Court closure orders. The calculator does not infer additional closures.

Fictitious example

Fictitious original-case docketing on August 24, 2026. The respondent seeks conditional review of the same judgment under Rule 12.5. Exclude the established trigger day, August 24, 2026. Counting 30 calendar days reaches September 23, 2026. The final day is an open weekday.

Fictitious facts and dates. No different schedule, additional Court closure or extension is assumed.

Conditional consideration

An otherwise untimely conditional cross-petition will not be granted unless the original petition is granted under Rule 13.4.

Required format and fee

Comply with Rule 14, file the required copies and pay the docket fee or submit the appropriate in-forma-pauperis motion. Identify the paper clearly as a conditional cross-petition.

Separate petition

Rule 12.5 prohibits joining the cross-petition with another pleading, except the attached in-forma-pauperis motion.

Prompt notice

After docketing the cross-petition, promptly notify all cross-respondents of filing, docketing and the docket number on the Clerk’s form. Serve that notice under Rule 29.

• The calculator counts the encoded default period after an established trigger. It does not determine jurisdiction, party alignment or the effect of a particular order.
• Check the Court’s docket, actual directions and proof of the required act.

• Verify original-case docketing and the same judgment being reviewed.
• Identify the cross-petitioner and all cross-respondents.
• Prepare the separate Rule 14 petition and required fee or pauper motion.
• Mark the cover as a conditional cross-petition.
• File within the nonextendable period and promptly serve the Clerk-form notice.
• Rule 29.2 distinguishes timely paper receipt, qualifying USPS postmark, commercial-carrier delivery and proper electronic submission. Under the March 2026 rule, electronic timeliness requires the paper copies to be delivered or mailed by a specified method within three days. Rule 29.7 and the current guidelines impose additional electronic-submission requirements for represented filers and identify exceptions. Filing with the Court does not itself transmit the document to other parties.
• Check represented-filer electronic requirements and paper-copy requirements. The March 2026 guidelines exempt specified sealed and privacy-sensitive filings from electronic submission.
• Preserve both filing and separate service evidence.