How the periods behind the calculators actually work — where they come from, how they are counted, and the places the counting most often goes wrong.
Uniform Rule 1
A court day is any day that is not a Saturday, Sunday or public holiday. This explains how the Uniform Rules count them — the day excluded at the start, the day included at the end, and the holidays that move each year.
5 min read
Uniform Rules 19(1), 26 and 70
The 16 December to 15 January exclusion is not a court-wide recess in the High Court. It attaches to three rules and no others — and the periods it does not touch, including summary judgment, run straight through the festive season.
6 min read
Prescription Act 68 of 1969
Three years for an ordinary debt, six for a negotiable instrument, fifteen for a debt owed to the State and thirty for a judgment debt or mortgage bond — plus the Road Accident Fund periods, which do not follow the same pattern.
6 min read
Uniform Rule 26
A notice of bar gives five court days, the festive exclusion applies to them, and the consequence of missing them is automatic. What the rule requires, how the period is counted, and what is left once it has expired.
5 min read