  We investigate a new empirical fitting method for the optical light curves of
Type Ia supernovae (SNe~Ia) that is able to estimate the first-light time of
SNe~Ia, even when they are not discovered extremely early. With an improved
ability to estimate the time of first light for SNe Ia, we compute the rise
times for a sample of 56 well-observed SNe~Ia. We find rise times ranging from
10.5 to 20.5 days, with a mean of 16.0 days, and confirm that the rise time is
generally correlated with the decline rate $\Delta m_{15}(B)$, but with large
scatter. The rise time could be an additional parameter to help classify SN~Ia
subtypes.
