A Colorado Court of Appeals panel ruled April 30 that the standard rule extending civil filing deadlines when a due date falls on a weekend or legal holiday applies to the 28-day window for seeking judicial review of government decisions — establishing the first published appellate precedent in Colorado on the question.
The case arose from a pro se prisoner named Nicholas Rigato, whose petition for judicial review of a Colorado Department of Corrections decision was dismissed by a district court for missing the deadline. Rigato’s 28th day fell on Memorial Day 2024. He filed the day after. The district court found the filing untimely. The Court of Appeals reversed.
Writing for a unanimous three-judge panel in *Rigato v. Executive Director of the Colorado Department of Corrections*, 2026COA33, the court held that Colorado Rule of Civil Procedure 6(a) — which extends deadlines falling on a Saturday, Sunday, or legal holiday to the next business day — applies to the judicial review deadline set by the State Administrative Procedure Act. No Colorado appellate court had previously addressed this question in a published opinion.
The ruling applies broadly. Any person challenging a state government decision — including administrative rulings on land use, professional licenses, regulatory actions, or agency determinations — now has a clear rule: if the 28th day after the final agency action falls on a weekend or holiday, the deadline extends to the next business day. District courts no longer have discretion to dismiss petitions filed on that following business day as untimely.
The precedent has practical significance for rural Coloradans and others who navigate government appeals without legal representation. Rigato was representing himself when his case was dismissed. The district court’s ruling that he missed his window by one day — when that day was a federal holiday — was reversed by the Appeals Court on grounds that the law does not punish filers for the calendar.
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