When must I serve a response to a CIT dispositive motion?

Rule 7(g) includes judgment on the pleadings, summary judgment, judgment on an agency record, dismissal and other final-determination motions.

Read the applicable procedure before using the generic 35 days. Rule 56.2(d) governs its section 1581(c) agency-record motion with a separate 60-day responsive-brief schedule. The scheduling order may provide otherwise.

Establish effective service of the incoming motion under Rule 5. Choose the actual service method. Filing or later receipt does not replace an established Rule 5 service event.

1. Use effective service of the dispositive motion. Exclude a section 1581(c) agency-record motion governed by Rule 56.2.
2. Exclude the established trigger day.
3. Count 35 calendar days.
4. If the final day is a Saturday, Sunday or Rule 6(a)(6) legal holiday, continue to the next day that is not. The rule lists national statutory holidays and days declared holidays by the President or Congress. Check additional declarations and actual clerk inaccessibility.
5. For qualifying Rule 5(b)(2)(C), (D) or (F) service, add five days after that otherwise computed expiration. Apply final-day rollover again. Do not merely add five to the original period.

Exclude the established trigger day. Count every following calendar day, including intermediate Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays, under USCIT Rule 6(a)(1).

Rule 6(d) adds five days for incoming service under Rule 5(b)(2)(C) (mail), (D) (clerk delivery where no address is known) or (F) (other means consented to in writing). First compute and roll the ordinary expiration under Rule 6(a), then add five days and roll the new final day. Electronic service receives no addition, even with a duplicate paper copy.

Fictitious incoming paper served solely by Rule 5(b)(2)(C) mail on August 24, 2026. No effective electronic service, different order or additional holiday applies. The 35-day ordinary expiration is September 28. Add five days to Saturday, October 3, then continue past Sunday to October 5. The resulting date is Monday, October 5, 2026.

Fictitious example

Fictitious ordinary dispositive motion effectively served electronically on August 24, 2026. Rule 56.2 and a different rule or order do not apply. August 25–31 supplies seven days. September 1–28 supplies 28. Day 35 is Monday.

Fictitious dates. No different order, additional declared holiday or actual clerk inaccessibility is assumed.

Section 1581(c) agency-record motion

Rule 56.2(d) requires responsive briefs to be filed and served within 60 days after service of the movant’s brief, unless the scheduling order provides otherwise. This ordinary 35-day calculator does not cover that procedure.

Other agency-record procedure

Rule 56.1(d) separately prescribes a 35-day response and 21-day reply in its procedure. Confirm that rule’s scope and papers instead of treating every agency-record proceeding alike.

Different rule or order

Rule 7(d) yields to another prescribed rule or court order. A matching motion label does not override the actual schedule.

Reply and filing

The reply has its own response-service trigger. Rule 5(d)(1)(A) separately addresses filing after timely service of this response.

• The calculator does not determine the motion’s classification or select an agency-record procedure.
• It does not compute the Rule 56.2 responsive-brief period or infer scheduling-order changes.

• Identify the dispositive motion under Rule 7(g).
• Check whether Rule 56.1, Rule 56.2 or another procedure controls.
• Read the scheduling order and any extension disposition.
• Establish effective incoming service and choose its method.
• Serve the response timely and separately satisfy filing requirements.
• Rule 5(d)(3) generally requires represented persons to file electronically unless the court permits paper filing for good cause. An unrepresented person’s electronic filing requires an order.
• USCIT Rule 6(a)(4) ends electronic filing at midnight in the court’s time zone unless a statute, local rule or court order sets a different time. Other means use scheduled clerk closing. Rule 82(a) ordinarily specifies 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. clerk hours. Filing and effective service remain separate checks.
• Preserve effective service and filing evidence. Rule 5(d)(4) ordinarily uses receipt, with a specific properly addressed certified-or-registered-mail exception. Ordinary mailing alone does not satisfy that exception.