Why a Korean civil appeal has two separate filing clocks
This calculator helps a party to an ordinary Korean civil case, or a family member assisting them, plan the notice of appeal and the statement of grounds separately.
It applies Korean rules verified on September 18, 2026, rather than the procedural rules of another country.
Its purpose is to help organize representation, preparation and filing before a short procedural deadline passes.
The notice-of-appeal period runs from service of the judgment, while the grounds period runs from service of the notice that the appellate court received the case record.
The judgment announcement date and the date the court received the record are not substitutes for those service dates.
Check each effective service date in the case record and leave an unserved notice blank instead of guessing its future date.
What the results show
- The first counted day, unadjusted endpoint and adjusted filing date for each document
- Dates skipped for weekends or public holidays and days from your reference date
- A date comparison between the entered appeal filing and the calculated deadline
- The extension status and a preparation checklist you can save with the results
Two weeks for the appeal; 40 days for the grounds
Notice of appeal: first-instance court
Civil Procedure Act Article 396 provides a two-week period from service of the judgment and designates it an invariable period.
Article 397 requires the notice of appeal to be filed with the first-instance court.
Check the case number and destination rather than assuming every appeal document belongs at the appellate court.
Grounds: appellate court
Under Article 402-2, an appellant who did not state grounds in the notice of appeal must file the grounds within 40 days of receiving the Article 400(3) notice.
The statement of grounds goes to the appellate court.
The calculator does not simply add 40 days to the date the appeal itself was filed.
Article 402-3 provides for dismissal by decision when grounds are not submitted in time, with exceptions for matters the court must examine on its own initiative or grounds already stated in the notice of appeal.
This tool cannot determine whether an exception is met or whether a court has dismissed an appeal.
Prepare specific disputed findings and supporting reasons; a general expression of dissatisfaction should not be assumed sufficient.
Match each input to the case record
Judgment service date
Enter the legally effective service date.
It may differ from when you personally read a document passed on by a family member or when the judgment was announced.
For electronic litigation, verify the service record instead of treating a text-message notification as the legal service event.
Appeal filing date
The date on the filing receipt controls the transition check for the new grounds regime.
Act No. 20003 applies the new provisions to cases in which the first notice of appeal is filed from 2025-03-01.
The calculator does not assign the new 40-day deadline to earlier filings.
Record-receipt notice service date
This is the effective date of service of the appellate court’s notice that it received the record.
Do not replace it with the appeal filing date or judgment service date.
If the notice has not arrived, leave it blank and return to the grounds calculation after checking service.
Reference date and extra holidays
The reference date only measures days remaining; it does not change the statutory starting point.
Loading the example also loads a fixed reference date, so its remaining-day figure is not necessarily measured from today.
Enter officially designated public holidays, not personal leave, travel or days when preparing the case is inconvenient.
Counting days and adjusting the final endpoint
Civil Procedure Act Article 170 refers period calculations to the Civil Act.
The ordinary exclusion of the first day under Article 157 means counting starts on the day after service.
Under Article 161, an endpoint falling on Saturday or a public holiday moves forward; consecutive holidays are skipped until a non-holiday date is reached.
Calculation sequence
- Unadjusted appeal endpoint = judgment service date + 14 days
- Unadjusted grounds endpoint = record-receipt notice service date + 40 days
- Add one calendar month only when the court’s extension decision is confirmed
- Adjust the final endpoint for Saturday, Sunday and applicable public holidays
- Days remaining = adjusted filing date − entered reference date
Weekends and holidays inside the period still count toward the 14 or 40 calendar days.
Counting working days only would incorrectly move the deadline later.
Zero days means the reference date equals the calculated deadline; it does not mean filing is complete or that a full business day remains.
Step-by-step use and saving the review
- Confirm that the procedure is an appeal from an ordinary Korean first-instance civil judgment.
- Enter judgment service to check the notice-of-appeal deadline first.
- If the appeal has been filed, enter its filing date and the effective service date of the record-receipt notice.
- Distinguish an extension request from a court-granted extension.
- Compare the holiday list and individual court directions, and set the reference date.
- Review the checklist and save the results as a TXT file.
The saved review includes your dates, extension status, built-in and additional holidays, results and checklist.
It preserves the assumptions behind the schedule when you discuss preparation with family or a representative.
Recalculate after a new service record or extension order is confirmed, and keep the updated review distinct from an older version.
Worked examples with Korean public holidays
Chuseok moves the appeal date to 2026-09-28
Judgment service on 2026-09-10 produces an unadjusted 14-day endpoint of 2026-09-24.
Chuseok holidays on September 24–26 and Sunday the 27th move the result to 2026-09-28.
Against the reference date 2026-09-18, that is 10 days remaining.
A separately served notice gives 2026-10-26
Assume the appeal was filed on 2026-09-15 and the record-receipt notice was served on 2026-09-16.
The 40-day endpoint is 2026-10-26, which requires no holiday adjustment in this example.
A confirmed one-calendar-month extension changes it to 2026-11-26.
New holidays also matter
Judgment service on 2026-04-17 reaches Labor Day on May 1; the holiday and following weekend move the result to 2026-05-04.
Service on 2026-07-03 reaches Constitution Day on July 17 and moves through the weekend to 2026-07-20.
An old holiday list can therefore produce a different date.
A one-month extension is added before holiday adjustment
The appellate court may grant a one-calendar-month extension once, on the appellant’s application.
Submitting an application does not itself add a month: keep working to the original 40-day deadline until the decision is confirmed.
This grounds extension does not extend the separate two-week period for filing the notice of appeal.
Supreme Court 2025Ma9429
In the decision dated April 10, 2026, service of the record-receipt notice occurred on 2025-09-22 and the unadjusted 40th day was Saturday, 2025-11-01.
With a one-month extension, the deadline was 2025-12-01.
Moving November 1 to Monday, November 3, before adding the month would incorrectly produce December 3.
The original endpoint is an intermediate day of the combined period, so only the final endpoint receives holiday adjustment.
Calendar-month counting follows Civil Act Article 160.
For example, when the original 40-day endpoint is 2026-02-28, the additional month runs from March 1 to 2026-03-31.
The calculation is not a fixed 30-day addition or a universal rule that chooses the same day number in the next month.
Check an order that specifies a particular date or other case-specific directions.
2026 holiday coverage and other years
The built-in list combines the Korea AeroSpace Administration’s 2026 calendar announcement with the current public-holiday regulation.
It includes Lunar New Year, Chuseok, Buddha’s Birthday, substitute holidays, the June 3 local election and the newly designated Labor Day and Constitution Day.
Saturdays and Sundays are handled separately, so you do not need to type every weekend.
When a relevant endpoint falls outside 2026, the result is marked provisional until you check that year’s holidays.
Add every missing holiday for the relevant period, then use the calendar confirmation option.
Service near the end of the year can produce a deadline in the next year, requiring that next calendar to be checked as well.
Even for 2026, any temporary holiday newly designated after verification needs to be added.
Three practical planning situations
Before appointing counsel
The appeal deadline may arrive while you are still reviewing the judgment.
Prepare the judgment and service record and coordinate both consultation and filing dates.
Family assistance
Share the different filing destinations through the checklist.
Decide who will verify receipt of each document and keep the evidence together.
Extension pending
Keep the hoped-for extended schedule separate from the currently applicable period.
The pending state retains 40 days until you confirm the order.
If the entered appeal date is later than the calculated deadline, first recheck the service date and holiday inputs.
Remaining time for the grounds does not cure a late notice of appeal.
Any restoration argument or claim that the delay was beyond the party’s responsibility requires separate case-specific review.
Scope and filing precautions
- This tool does not automatically determine criminal, administrative, family, interlocutory or final-appeal deadlines, or special procedures.
- It does not infer electronic viewing, deemed service, service by dispatch or public-notice service dates.
- Suspension, interruption, additional periods, restoration and individual court orders require separate checking.
- It does not assess the sufficiency of grounds, admissibility of arguments or evidence, or prospects of success.
Distinguish expiration at the end of the final day under Civil Act Article 159 from the opening hours of a physical filing counter.
Do not assume a posting date proves timely receipt; check delivery and filing.
Creating or saving an electronic draft is different from completing its submission.
Allow time for transmission failures and missing attachments, and keep the filing receipt.
Frequently asked questions
Do I count 14 days from the judgment announcement?
The ordinary starting point is service of the written judgment.
Verify its legally effective service date rather than using the announcement date.
Are all weekends and holidays removed from the 40 days?
No.
Holidays inside the period still count; only a final endpoint on Saturday or a public holiday moves forward.
Does requesting an extension automatically add one month?
No.
The court must grant it; the pending option retains the 40-day period.
Can I treat one month as 30 days?
No.
Calendar-month rules under the Civil Act depend on the starting day and month length.
Are separate grounds unnecessary if I wrote reasons in the appeal?
Article 402-3 has an exception, but the court decides whether the stated grounds are legally sufficient.
A calculated date cannot confirm that no further filing is needed.
Is an appeal before judgment service an input error?
No.
Article 396 expressly permits an appeal before service, so the calculator does not block it for that reason.
Does the 40-day rule apply to an appeal filed before 2025-03-01?
The transitional provisions must be checked.
This calculator does not automatically apply the new period to earlier filings; consult the directions for the case.
Does an overdue result mean the court dismissed the appeal?
No.
It is a date comparison, not a court decision.
Promptly check service, holidays, orders and any separate restoration issue.
Official sources and update basis
Rules and precedent were checked on September 18, 2026.
The sources include the Civil Procedure Act’s consolidated text effective 2025-07-12, Act No. 20003’s transition from 2025-03-01, the Civil Act effective 2026-03-17 and the Civil Procedure Rules effective 2026-03-01.
The public-holiday regulation was checked using its consolidated text effective 2026-05-11, with direct statute and precedent calls to the National Law Information OPEN API.
Recheck amendments, subsequent decisions, new public holidays and the orders in the individual case.
This Korea-specific planning result is based on the entered facts and does not replace a court decision or legal review.
Turn the dates into a filing plan
Keep the service records with the saved review, and check each document’s filing destination and completed receipt separately.
For the budget, use the civil court fee calculator; for the longer survival of a claim, review the separate limitation-period calculator.