Court-Martial Deadline Calculator

Enter the case dates you know. The calculator returns every deadline, waiting period, and effective-date rule those dates trigger under the Rules for Courts-Martial, the Military Rules of Evidence, and the UCMJ — in one chronological calendar, each linked to the governing provision. New to the sequence these dates sit in? Start with the court-martial process overview.

Verify every date before you rely on it

These dates are calendar arithmetic applied to the periods stated in the rules. They are a starting point for your own computation — not a determination of any deadline in your case. Before acting on any date here, check it against:

the text of the rule or article itself — follow the citation link on each row and read it;
the Military Judges’ Benchbook (EBB) instruction, where one applies;
current case law — appellate decisions construe how these periods run, what tolls or excludes them, and how they are computed; and
your service’s implementing regulations, which may impose shorter or additional deadlines.

The calculator does not account for excludable delay, tolling, weekends and holidays, service-specific rules, or any order of the military judge — each of which can move a real deadline. Not legal advice.

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Every day- and hour-based time period (12)

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Period	Authority	Trigger & required action	Category
14 days	Art. 57(a)(1) — 10 U.S.C. § 857(a)(1) UCMJ	Runs from sentence announced Forfeiture of pay and allowances or reduction in grade takes effect (the earlier of this date or the other statutory trigger). GCM / SPCM “takes effect on the earlier of … the date that is 14 days after the date on which the sentence is adjudged” Mirrored by R.C.M. 1102(b)(1)(A)(i) and 1102(b)(6)(A)(i). NOTE the wording: the statute runs from the sentence being ADJUDGED, while R.C.M. 1102 runs from its being ANNOUNCED under R.C.M. 1007. The two provisions genuinely differ; this tool has one “sentence” date, so check the distinction if they could fall on different days.	Effective-date rule
14 days	R.C.M. 1003(b)(2) (Discussion) R.C.M.	Runs from sentence announced Forfeitures of pay and allowances take effect 14 days after the sentence is adjudged (or on approval of a summary court-martial sentence, if earlier). Discussion “Forfeitures of pay and allowances adjudged as part of a court-martial sentence … are effective 14 days after the sentence is adjudged” Discussion; the binding rule is R.C.M. 1102(b)(1)(A)(i).	Effective-date rule
14 days	R.C.M. 1102(b)(1)(A)(i) R.C.M.	Runs from sentence announced The forfeiture portion of the sentence takes effect (the earlier of this date or approval of a summary court-martial sentence). “that part of the sentence shall take effect on the earlier of — (i) 14 days after the sentence is announced under R.C.M. 1007”	Effective-date rule
14 days	R.C.M. 1102(b)(6)(A)(i) R.C.M.	Runs from sentence announced The reduction-in-grade portion of the sentence takes effect (the earlier of this date or approval of a summary court-martial sentence). “that part of an adjudged sentence that includes reduction in enlisted grade shall take effect on the earlier of — (i) 14 days after the sentence is announced”	Effective-date rule
10 days	R.C.M. 1106(d)(1) R.C.M.	Runs from sentence announced The accused may submit matters to the convening authority. GCM / SPCM “the accused may submit matters to the convening authority under this rule within ten days after the sentence is announced”	Clemency submission deadline
7 days	R.C.M. 1106(d)(2) R.C.M.	Runs from sentence announced The accused may submit matters to the convening authority (summary court-martial). SCM “the accused may submit matters under this rule within seven days after the sentence is announced”	Clemency submission deadline
10 + 20 days	R.C.M. 1106(d)(4)(A) (extended) R.C.M.	Runs from sentence announced Outside limit if the convening authority extends the accused’s submission period by the maximum additional 20 days for good cause. If extended GCM / SPCM “If, within the period described in paragraph (1) or (2), the accused shows that additional time is required … the convening authority may, for good cause, extend the period for not more than 20 days.” Only applies if an extension is actually granted. Extends the 10-day R.C.M. 1106(d)(1) period.	Clemency submission deadline
7 + 20 days	R.C.M. 1106(d)(4)(A) (extended, SCM) R.C.M.	Runs from sentence announced Outside limit if the convening authority extends the accused’s submission period by the maximum additional 20 days for good cause (summary court-martial). If extended SCM “If, within the period described in paragraph (1) or (2), the accused shows that additional time is required … the convening authority may, for good cause, extend the period for not more than 20 days.” Only applies if an extension is actually granted. Extends the 7-day R.C.M. 1106(d)(2) summary court-martial period — paragraph (2) is within the extension’s reach.	Clemency submission deadline
10 days	R.C.M. 1106A(e)(1) R.C.M.	Runs from sentence announced A crime victim may submit matters to the convening authority. GCM / SPCM “a crime victim may submit matters to the convening authority under this rule within ten days after the sentence is announced”	Victim clemency deadline
7 days	R.C.M. 1106A(e)(2) R.C.M.	Runs from sentence announced A crime victim may submit matters to the convening authority (summary court-martial). SCM “a crime victim may submit matters under this rule within seven days after the sentence is announced”	Victim clemency deadline
10 + 20 days	R.C.M. 1106A(e)(3)(A) (extended) R.C.M.	Runs from sentence announced Outside limit if the convening authority extends the victim’s submission period by the maximum additional 20 days for good cause. If extended GCM / SPCM “If, within the period described in paragraph (1) or (2), the crime victim shows that additional time is required … the convening authority may, for good cause, extend the period for not more than 20 days.” Only applies if an extension is actually granted. Extends the 10-day R.C.M. 1106A(e)(1) period.	Victim clemency deadline
7 + 20 days	R.C.M. 1106A(e)(3)(A) (extended, SCM) R.C.M.	Runs from sentence announced Outside limit if the convening authority extends the victim’s submission period by the maximum additional 20 days for good cause (summary court-martial). If extended SCM “If, within the period described in paragraph (1) or (2), the crime victim shows that additional time is required … the convening authority may, for good cause, extend the period for not more than 20 days.” Only applies if an extension is actually granted. Extends the 7-day R.C.M. 1106A(e)(2) summary court-martial period — paragraph (2) is within the extension’s reach.	Victim clemency deadline

WHAT THIS COVERS

Every provision of the Rules for Courts-Martial, the Military Rules of Evidence, and the UCMJ (10 U.S.C. ch. 47) that ties a specific number of days or hours to an event: a deadline to act, a maximum permitted delay, a minimum waiting or notice period, an effective-date rule, a speedy-trial restart, a maximum punishment expressed in days, or an offense-severity threshold.

Hour-based periods are included in full. They cluster in pretrial confinement (R.C.M. 305 and Article 11 — the 24-hour report, 48-hour probable cause determination, and 72-hour commander’s decision) and in interlocutory Government appeals (R.C.M. 908 and Article 62, where three separate 72-hour obligations run from the same ruling); the rest are the R.C.M. 405(l)(1) post-hearing submission, the two advisory R.C.M. 703(g) witness-notice periods, and the Article 86 rule converting hours of absence into days. Several run alongside a day period in the same rule, so both halves appear on the timeline. An hour clock counted from a date with no time of day entered runs from midnight, and the row says so.

Only clock-driven entries are turned into dates. Maximum punishments, severity thresholds, and credit ratios (Article 15’s limits, the Article 86 absence table, the R.C.M. 305(l) confinement credit) are carried in the full reference chart but are never computed as deadlines — they are not dates. Nor are the two exceptions (R.C.M. 305(n)(1) and (n)(2)), which do the opposite: they switch off the pretrial-confinement hour clocks for a unit under an operational-necessity suspension, or for a person confined aboard a vessel at sea. Check them before relying on any R.C.M. 305 hour deadline.

HOW THE DATES ARE COUNTED

R.C.M. 103(9) supplies the default convention, and it is what this calculator applies: “When a period of time is expressed in a number of days, the period shall be in calendar days, unless otherwise specified. Unless otherwise specified, the date on which the period begins shall not count, but the date on which the period ends shall count as one day.” So the Nth day is the trigger date plus N. (R.C.M. 707(b)(1) states the same rule again for the speedy-trial clock, and confirms that “brought to trial” means arraignment under R.C.M. 904.) Calendar days means weekends and holidays are not skipped — and this tool does not skip them.

Two provisions depart from that default, and each is handled as its own rule rather than assumed:

R.C.M. 305(j)(2) counts both ends. “[T]he initial date of confinement under military control shall count as one day and the date of the review shall also count as one day.” The 7-day pretrial confinement review (and its 10-day extension) therefore falls one day earlier than the default rule would give. Applying R.C.M. 103(9) there would report a liberty deadline a day late.
Article 35 / R.C.M. 602 run through a day. Trial may not be held over objection through the 5th (GCM) or 3rd (SPCM) day after service, so the first permissible date is one day beyond — these rows read “Not before.”

Hour clocks are counted as elapsed hours from the time of day you enter; with no time entered they run from midnight, and the row says so in red.

Where a period appears only in a non-binding Discussion, the entry is badged as such. Where the same deadline appears in both the statute and the implementing rule — the Article 35 / R.C.M. 602 waiting period, the Article 57 / R.C.M. 1102 effective date, the Article 66/67/69 / R.C.M. 1201/1203 appeal deadlines — both are listed, because they are formally separate provisions.

Not legal advice. This calculator is an informational aid. It applies ordinary calendar arithmetic to periods stated in the Manual for Courts-Martial and the UCMJ; it does not account for excludable delay, tolling, the treatment of weekends and holidays, orders of the military judge, or the facts of any case. Verify every date against the rule or article itself, the Military Judges’ Benchbook instruction where one applies, current case law, and your service’s implementing regulations — any of which may change how a period is computed or impose a deadline this tool does not carry. Consult a judge advocate or qualified counsel before relying on any date shown here.