The Facetious and Specious Guide to Counting Time

Under Penal Code section 859b, a preliminary hearing is supposed to be within 10 court days of the initial arraignment.

Court day is not defined in statute, but it has been interpreted to be the same as a judicial day. (People v. Pickens (1981) 124 Cal.App.3d 800, 803, fn. 1.) "A "judicial day" is any day except Sundays and holidays enumerated by Government Code section 6700. (Pickens, at p. 804, citing Code Civ. Proc., § 134.) Judicial holidays are defined in CCP135 as all of the holidays in GC6700, Saturdays, and the day after Thanksgiving. GC6700(a) defines every Sunday as a holiday. Days other than that are not judicial holidays. For example, holidays declared by the county are not judicial holidays. (Pickens, at p. 804.) Holidays that that only apply to certain people, even if declared by the President or Governor, don't count as judicial holidays, because "all courts and public offices of the State . . . shall be open and function in their normal and usual manner." (Gov. Code, § 6705.)