The Florida Summary Judgment Deadline That Changed in 2025

<p>If the last time you opposed a motion for summary judgment in Florida was before 2025, the deadline you remember is wrong — and it changed in a way that's easy to miss if no one tells you.</p>

<h2>What changed on January 1, 2025</h2>

<p>Under the old rule, your response to a motion for summary judgment was due <strong>20 days before the hearing</strong>. You found the hearing date on the calendar and counted backward to set your deadline. Effective January 1, 2025 (<em>In re Amendments to Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.510</em>, SC2024-0662), that approach is gone.</p>

<p>Under the current Rule 1.510(c)(5), the nonmovant's response — including any opposing affidavits and evidence — is due <strong>40 days after the motion for summary judgment is served</strong>. The period runs forward from service, not backward from a hearing. And the hearing itself can't be held until at least 10 days after that response deadline.</p>

<p>So the timeline is now linear and predictable: the motion is served, your response is due 40 days later, and the hearing happens no sooner than 10 days after that.</p>

<h2>Why this matters more for a small firm</h2>

<p>The math isn't the hard part. The hard part is that <strong>the event you key off of moved</strong>. The clock now starts when the motion lands in your inbox — not when the judicial assistant sets a hearing. If you're still waiting for a hearing date to start counting, the deadline may already be running before you realize it.</p>

<p>For a solo or small shop without a dedicated docketing clerk, that's the trap: not bad arithmetic, but watching the wrong trigger. Once you know to start at service, the rest is straightforward.</p>

<h2>How to count the 40 days</h2>

<p>The 40-day period follows Florida's standard time-counting rule, Fla. R. Jud. Admin. 2.514: exclude the day the motion was served, count every day after that — including weekends and holidays — and if the 40th day falls on a Saturday, Sunday, or legal holiday, the deadline rolls forward to the next business day. If you were served by mail rather than e-service, add five days.</p>

<p>If you'd rather not count by hand, our free <a href="/tools/florida-summary-judgment-response-deadline">Florida summary judgment response deadline calculator</a> does it for you: enter the date you were served and it returns the exact 40-day date with the weekend and holiday adjustment already applied, plus the rule citation. If you're the moving party and want to know the soonest your motion can be heard, the <a href="/tools/florida-summary-judgment-hearing-deadline">earliest hearing date calculator</a> works the same way.</p>

<h2>The one-line version</h2>

<p>Your response is due 40 days after the motion is served. The hearing is at least 10 days after that. If you learned this rule before 2025, replace "20 days before the hearing" in your memory today.</p>

<p>This is exactly the kind of deadline CourtFlow tracks for you automatically — it reads the court email, recognizes the motion, and starts the 40-day clock on every case, so the trigger never slips past you. <a href="/pricing">Start a free trial</a> and see it on your own docket.</p>

<p><em>This article is general information for Florida practitioners, not legal advice, and reflects the rules as of mid-2026. Always confirm the current rule and any local administrative orders for your court.</em></p>