For years a postmark would reliably document the date you mailed something, but not anymore. As of December 24, 2025, those glory days have passed due to recent USPS operational changes, and the USPS has formally acknowledged this. These changes create real malpractice exposure anywhere a statute, rule, or agency treats a postmark as proof of timely filing. In response, you should now assume that a postmark may be one or more days late, especially in rural areas, and adjust your internal practices accordingly.
What’s Been Happening?
Since 2021, USPS has been consolidating nearly 200 local processing centers into about 60 large regional hubs, while also reducing the number of daily dispatches from local post offices. USPS has now codified in its Domestic Mail Manual that a postmark “does not inherently or necessarily align” with the date a piece of mail was deposited. This is not a small operational tweak; it fundamentally breaks the decades‑long assumption that a postmark is reliable evidence of mailing.
Why Are Postmarks Now Frequently Delayed?
It’s primarily due to two reasons:
1. Mail now travels much farther before being processed.
Mail used to be processed locally, often the same day it was dropped off. Now mail from many communities will travel hundreds of miles to a regional processing center before receiving a postmark. In fact, ten states will now have 100% of their mail processed out of state. (e.g., Vermont, West Virginia, Wyoming, and Mississippi)
2. Many post offices now dispatch mail only once each morning.
Under the new Regional Transportation Optimization (RTO) schedule, post offices more than 50 miles from a processing center now send outgoing mail once per day, typically early morning. Anything dropped off after that cutoff may not begin its journey until the next day.
Taken together, these changes mean a letter dropped off on a Monday afternoon may not be postmarked until Tuesday or Wednesday despite being timely mailed and the postal service acknowledges that this is to now be an expected outcome, not an anomaly.
What Should I Do Now?
If a lawyer mails something on time but receives a late postmark, they may still be held responsible for an untimely filing, which means the malpractice exposure from a missed deadline is very real. Making matters worse: rural lawyers and clients are going to be disproportionately affected. Fortunately, there are steps you can take to reduce the risk:
- First, make sure that everyone at your firm understands that “mailed today” does not mean “postmarked today.”
- Second, use electronic filing whenever possible. If something must be sent through the mail, go to the counter and request a hand‑stamped postmark; and never cut it close without first making sure the local post office is going to be open.
- Third, consider using a priority mail service that provides tracking and timestamped acceptance.
- Fourth, stop waiting until the last minute! Mail items several days in advance of any deadline, especially if your practice is in a rural area.
- And finally, if you’d like to know more about the changes USPS has made and the impact on lawyers, I strongly encourage you to read what Brookings has reported at https://www.brookings.edu/articles/when-a-postmark-no-longer-tracks-mailing/.
As another of our colleagues here at ALPS stated, "it seems like it's basically tossing the mailbox rule into complete chaos.” I’m concerned he may be absolutely right — you should share my concern as well, at least for the time being.
Mark Bassingthwaighte, Risk Manager : Feb 17, 2021
