Guide · Brazil
Procedural deadlines in Brazil: how the CPC counts them
Which days count, which day the term starts on, which holidays and which recess stop it, when it doubles and at what moment it expires, with the norm cited and three computations worked out day by day.
Work out your deadline nowProcedural terms run in business days
The 2015 Código de Processo Civil changed the count of every procedural term with a single sentence. Article 219 says: «Na contagem de prazo em dias, estabelecido por lei ou pelo juiz, computar-se-ão somente os dias úteis» — in counting a term in days, set by law or by the judge, only business days are computed.
Two rules follow from it and order the whole count:
- Only business days count. A fifteen-day term is fifteen business days, and in practice almost always more than three calendar weeks.
- Only for procedural terms. The sole paragraph of article 219 says the rule «aplica-se somente aos prazos processuais». Substantive-law terms — lapse periods, limitation periods — remain in calendar days. The thirty days of article 26, item I, of the Código de Defesa do Consumidor to complain about an apparent defect run through Saturdays, Sundays and holidays.
Article 224 closes the rule: terms are counted «excluindo o dia do começo e incluindo o dia do vencimento», excluding the day of the start and including the day of expiry. And when neither the law nor the judge sets a term for a party's act, it is five days (article 218, § 3º).
The labour courts count the same way since the 2017 labour reform: article 775 of the CLT, as worded by Lei nº 13.467/2017, counts terms «em dias úteis, com exclusão do dia do começo e inclusão do dia do vencimento». Before it, labour terms ran in calendar days.
On which day the term starts
The day of the start does not count: the count begins on the next business day. What changes from one case to another is which day is the day of the start, and article 231 of the CPC sets it by how the notice was served. The most common cases:
| How the citação or intimação was served | Day of the start |
|---|---|
| Through the Diário da Justiça, printed or electronic | The publication date (item VII) |
| By post | The day the return receipt is filed in the case (item I) |
| By a court officer | The day the served writ is filed in the case (item II) |
| Electronically, through the portal | The business day after it is read, or after the time to read it runs out (item V) |
| Summons by electronic means | The fifth business day after receipt is confirmed (item IX) |
| Under a letter between courts (carta precatória) | The day the notice or the executed letter is filed (item VI) |
Made available is not published
The electronic Diário da Justiça has two different days, and mixing them up moves the expiry. Article 224, § 2º, says the publication date is «o primeiro dia útil seguinte ao da disponibilização da informação» — the first business day after the information is made available — and § 3º that the count starts on the first business day after publication.
So if the decision was made available on a Thursday, publication is the Friday and the first day of the term is the following Monday. In the calculator, the date to enter is the publication date.
When there are several parties
With more than one defendant, the term to answer starts on the last of the dates of items I to VI of article 231 (§ 1º). With more than one party notified, each one's term is counted separately (§ 2º).
Which days do not count
Article 216 of the CPC names them: «Além dos declarados em lei, são feriados, para efeito forense, os sábados, os domingos e os dias em que não haja expediente forense» — besides those declared by law, Saturdays, Sundays and days without court business are holidays for court purposes. Saturday and Sunday are in the text of the code itself.
National holidays
There are nine, all on fixed dates and declared by three federal laws:
| Date | Holiday | Law |
|---|---|---|
| 1 January | Confraternização Universal | Lei nº 662/1949 |
| 21 April | Tiradentes | Lei nº 662/1949 |
| 1 May | Dia do Trabalho | Lei nº 662/1949 |
| 7 September | Independência do Brasil | Lei nº 662/1949 |
| 12 October | Nossa Senhora Aparecida | Lei nº 6.802/1980 |
| 2 November | Finados | Lei nº 662/1949 |
| 15 November | Proclamação da República | Lei nº 662/1949 |
| 20 November | Dia Nacional de Zumbi e da Consciência Negra | Lei nº 14.759/2023 |
| 25 December | Natal | Lei nº 662/1949 |
None moves to a Monday: a holiday that falls on a Saturday stays on the Saturday. And an optional day off (ponto facultativo) does not close the courts by itself: article 3 of Lei nº 662/1949 says optional days off «não prejudicarão os atos da vida forense».
Days without court business
The last part of article 216 — «os dias em que não haja expediente forense» — points to each court's own calendar. In the federal courts, article 62 of Lei nº 5.010/1966 sets Carnival, Holy Week, 11 August, 1 and 2 November, 8 December and the days from 20 December to 6 January. In the state courts, each court's portaria sets them, year by year.
For 2026 the calculator counts the days that the three state courts whose lookup Custodio reads — São Paulo, Amazonas and Acre — all close according to their portarias: Carnival Monday and Tuesday (16 and 17 February), Holy Thursday and Good Friday (2 and 3 April), Corpus Christi and the day after (4 and 5 June) and 8 December. A state or municipal holiday of your court is not a business day either and pushes the expiry back: the calculator says so next to the result.
The 20 December to 20 January suspension
Article 220 of the CPC says: «Suspende-se o curso do prazo processual nos dias compreendidos entre 20 de dezembro e 20 de janeiro, inclusive». Article 775-A of the CLT, added by Lei nº 13.545/2017, repeats the rule word for word in the labour courts.
It is a suspension, not a holiday. § 1º says judges, the Ministério Público, the Defensoria Pública, government lawyers and court staff keep working through the period; § 2º, that no hearings or judgment sessions are held. For the count, the effect is that the term stops on 20 December and resumes on 21 January with the days it had left.
The suspension reaches procedural terms only: the lapse period of the Código de Defesa do Consumidor keeps running in January.
Doubled terms
Some terms are counted double, and in every case it depends on who the party is, not on the term:
- Ministério Público, Fazenda Pública and Defensoria Pública (articles 180, 183 and 186 of the CPC): a doubled term for all their filings, counted from the personal intimação. It does not apply when the law expressly sets them a term of their own. And it applies in electronic case files too.
- Co-parties with lawyers from different firms (article 229): terms counted double, without having to ask. It stops if, with only two defendants, only one defends (§ 1º), and it does not apply to electronic case files (§ 2º). It also applies to embargos de declaração (article 1.023, § 1º).
The calculator counts the single term and, when the term admits doubling, says so next to the result: doubling without knowing who the party is would give someone a term they do not have.
What about distance?
The 2015 CPC adds no days for distance: the chapter on terms, articles 218 to 235, does not mention it. When the act is performed far away, through a letter between courts (carta precatória), what changes is the day of the start — the day the notice or the executed letter is filed (article 231, VI) — not the length of the term. That is why the Brazilian calculator does not ask for kilometres.
When it expires
The day of expiry counts
Article 224 includes the day of expiry: the last business day counted is the day the term expires, and no extra day is added at the end. Since the count only walks through business days, a procedural term never expires on a Saturday, a holiday or inside the suspension.
In electronic proceedings, until midnight
Article 213 allows the electronic act «em qualquer horário até as 24 (vinte e quatro) horas do último dia do prazo», at any time until midnight of the last day, by the time of the court before which it is performed. Brazil has four time zones: a firm in Manaus filing in São Paulo counts by São Paulo time. In paper case files, the filing is made within the courthouse's opening hours (article 212, § 3º).
And if the courthouse closes early
Under article 224, § 1º, if court business closes before the normal hour or electronic communication is unavailable on the day of the start or of expiry, that day moves to the next business day. It depends on what happens on that particular day: check the court's notice.
Three computations worked out day by day
These are the three situations that move a date the most, with the same count the calculator makes.
Fifteen days to appeal, with two holidays on the way
An appeal (apelação) — fifteen days under article 1.003, § 5º — against a judgment published on Monday 16 November 2026 starts running on Tuesday the 17th. The 17th, 18th and 19th count; Friday the 20th, Dia Nacional de Zumbi e da Consciência Negra, does not. Then come five business days from the 23rd to the 27th and five more from 30 November to 4 December; Monday the 7th is the fourteenth; Tuesday the 8th is a court holiday. It expires on Wednesday 9 December 2026. Fifteen business days were twenty-three calendar days.
The same date, in a substantive-law term, counts something else: the thirty calendar days of article 26, I, of the Código de Defesa do Consumidor, from 16 November, end on Wednesday 16 December, skipping no holiday at all.
Five days of embargos, from availability to expiry
A decision made available in the electronic Diário da Justiça on Thursday 12 November 2026 is deemed published on Friday the 13th (article 224, § 2º). Embargos de declaração — five days under article 1.023 — start running on the next business day: Saturday the 14th and Sunday the 15th, Proclamação da República, do not count. The 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th count; Friday the 20th is a holiday, and the weekend does not count either. It expires on Monday 23 November 2026.
Whoever enters the availability date instead of the publication date lands on Thursday the 19th: a different term from the one the law gives.
Eight days in the labour courts, before the recess
An ordinary appeal (recurso ordinário) — eight days under article 895 of the CLT, in business days under article 775 — against a judgment published on Wednesday 2 December 2026 starts running on Thursday the 3rd. The 3rd, the 4th and Monday the 7th count; Tuesday the 8th is a court holiday; then come the 9th, 10th, 11th and 14th. It expires on Tuesday 15 December 2026, five days before the recess.
Published a week later, the same judgment would have seven days counted by 18 December; the term would stop on 20 December under article 775-A and resume on 21 January with the one day it had left.
The terms the calculator carries
The Brazilian deadline calculator carries ten terms: eight from the CPC, one from the CLT and one from the CDC. The nine procedural ones in business days and the substantive one in calendar days, all excluding the day of the start.
| Term | Norm | Length |
|---|---|---|
| Answer to the claim in the ordinary procedure | CPC, art. 335 | 15 business days |
| Reply on the matters of art. 337 | CPC, art. 351 | 15 business days |
| Response to a document filed in the case | CPC, art. 437, § 1º | 15 business days |
| Voluntary payment when enforcing a judgment | CPC, art. 523 | 15 business days |
| Appeals and responses to them | CPC, art. 1.003, § 5º | 15 business days |
| Internal appeal against a single-judge decision | CPC, art. 1.070 | 15 business days |
| Embargos de declaração | CPC, art. 1.023 | 5 business days |
| A party's act with no term set | CPC, art. 218, § 3º | 5 business days |
| Ordinary appeal in the labour courts | CLT, art. 895 | 8 business days |
| Lapse period for an apparent defect in a non-durable product | CDC, art. 26, I | 30 calendar days |
Every result carries the text of the article, the link to the official source on Planalto and the list of the days it did not count, each with its reason: weekend, holiday by name or the article 220 suspension. With that you can redo the count without taking anyone's word for it.
Run the count with your own date
Pick the term, enter the date of the publicação or the intimação, and the calculator tells you the day it expires, in business days, with the article cited and every day it did not count named with its reason. Free, no account.
Open the deadline calculatorFrequently asked questions about deadlines in Brazil
Are procedural deadlines in Brazil counted in business days or calendar days?
Business days, «dias úteis». Article 219 of the CPC says that «na contagem de prazo em dias, estabelecido por lei ou pelo juiz, computar-se-ão somente os dias úteis», and its sole paragraph limits the rule to procedural terms. The same holds in the labour courts since Lei nº 13.467/2017, under article 775 of the CLT. Substantive-law terms, such as the lapse period of article 26 of the Código de Defesa do Consumidor, remain in calendar days.
On which day does a term start to run?
The day of the start is excluded (article 224 of the CPC), so the count begins on the next business day. Which day is the day of the start depends on how the notice was served (article 231): the publication date, when the intimação comes out in the Diário da Justiça; the day the return receipt or the served writ is filed, when it goes by post or by court officer. And the publication date is the first business day after the day the notice is made available in the electronic Diário da Justiça (article 224, § 2º).
Does the year-end recess suspend deadlines?
Yes. Article 220 of the CPC suspends the running of procedural terms from 20 December to 20 January, inclusive, and article 775-A of the CLT repeats the rule in the labour courts. It is a suspension, not a holiday: judges and staff keep working, but the term does not run, and it resumes on 21 January where it stopped. Substantive-law terms are not suspended.
Who gets a doubled term?
The Ministério Público, the Fazenda Pública and the Defensoria Pública (articles 180, 183 and 186 of the CPC), counted from the personal intimação, unless the law sets them a term of their own. And co-parties with lawyers from different firms (article 229), but not in electronic case files. The calculator does not double the term on its own: it depends on who the party is, and it says so next to the result.
Until what time can I file on the last day?
In electronic proceedings, until midnight of the last day of the term, by the time of the court before which the act is performed (article 213 of the CPC). In paper case files, within the opening hours of the courthouse (article 212, § 3º).
Is there a deadline calculator for Brazil?
Yes. At custodio.legal/calculadora-de-plazos-brasil you pick the CPC, CLT or CDC term, enter the date of the publicação or the intimação, and see the expiry with the article cited and every day not counted named. It is free, asks for no account and is an indicative computation on a cited norm, not the firm's own computation.
Working out a deadline is the first step
Custodio reads the filing on the court portal, proposes the term with its norm and warns you before it expires, on every case file it watches.