Post-trial motions: the deadlines that cannot be extended

Most procedural deadlines have some give. Post-trial motions are the category where systems deliberately remove it, because these motions are what stand between a judgment and finality.

Two things make them dangerous: the periods are short and they vary enormously, and the rules that normally let a court grant more time carve them out by name.

The deadlines, side by side

A practitioner moving between Pennsylvania and Texas is dealing with a threefold difference. Nothing about the motion looks different; only the window does.

What "cannot be extended" actually says

Federal — FRCP 6(b)(2) names them:

A court must not extend the time to act under Rules 50(b) and (d), 52(b), 59(b), (d), and (e), and 60(b).

Not "should not." Not "only for good cause." Must not — and the parties cannot stipulate around it either.

California — CCP 1013 excludes them from the mail extension: the added days do not extend the time for filing a notice of intention to move for new trial, a notice of intention to move to vacate under Section 663a, or a notice of appeal.

Georgia — § 9-11-6(b) ends with the same idea: "no extension of time shall be granted for the filing of motions for new trial or for judgment notwithstanding the verdict."

New York — CPLR 4405 goes further than a deadline and limits who decides: the motion "shall be made before the judge who presided at the trial," and "[t]he court shall have no power to grant relief after argument or submission of an appeal from the final judgment."

The federal cluster, and why the dates match

Federal post-judgment motions were deliberately aligned at 28 days:

• Rule 59(b) — new trial: no later than 28 days after entry of judgment.
• Rule 59(e) — motion to alter or amend a judgment: 28 days.
• Rule 50(b) — renewed motion for judgment as a matter of law: no later than 28 days after entry of judgment, or, if the motion addresses a jury issue not decided by a verdict, 28 days after the jury was discharged.
• Rule 52(b) — amended or additional findings: no later than 28 days after entry, and it "may accompany a motion for a new trial under Rule 59."

Rule 50(b) carries a prerequisite the others don't. A renewed motion is exactly that — renewed. Rule 50(a) requires the motion to have been made before the case went to the jury; if the court doesn't grant it, "the court is considered to have submitted the action to the jury subject to the court's later deciding the legal questions raised by the motion." No Rule 50(a) motion, no Rule 50(b) motion.

Affidavits. FRCP 59(c): when a new-trial motion is based on affidavits, they must be filed with the motion, and the opposing party has 14 days after service to file opposing affidavits. The court may permit reply affidavits.

On the court's own initiative. FRCP 59(d) lets the court order a new trial on its own, no later than 28 days after entry of judgment, and — after giving the parties notice and an opportunity to be heard — grant a timely motion for reasons not stated in it.

The state variations worth knowing

California's two-step. CCP 659(a) requires a notice of intention to move for a new trial — not the motion itself — designating the grounds and whether it will be made on affidavits, the minutes of the court, or both. It may be filed after the decision and before entry of judgment, or within 15 days of service of notice of entry, or within 180 days after entry, whichever comes first. CCP 657 lists the grounds, and CCP 663a covers the separate motion to set aside and enter a different judgment.

Pennsylvania's issue-preservation rule. Pa.R.C.P. 227.1(b) is as important as the deadline: post-trial relief may not be granted unless the grounds, if then available, "were raised in pre-trial proceedings or by motion, objection, point for charge, request for findings of fact or conclusions of law, offer of proof or other appropriate method at trial." A ground raised for the first time after trial is generally unavailable. And Rule 227.1(c) sets the clock from the verdict, not from entry of judgment — a distinction that costs days if you wait for the judgment to be entered.

Pa.R.C.P. 227.1(c) also gives other parties a follow-on window: once one party files a timely post-trial motion, any other party may file within ten days after that filing.

Ohio's notice trigger. Civ.R. 59(B) sets 28 days from entry of judgment — or, if the clerk hasn't completed service of the notice of judgment within the three-day period in Civ.R. 58(B), 28 days from when service is completed. A clerk's delay moves the deadline rather than costing you it.

Illinois stays enforcement. 735 ILCS 5/2-1203(b): a motion filed in apt time "stays enforcement of the judgment," except that a judgment granting injunctive or declaratory relief is stayed only by court order on a separate application. That is unusual — in most systems a post-trial motion does not stop collection.

Texas overrules by operation of law. TRCP 329b(c): a motion for new trial not determined by written order signed within 75 days after the judgment was signed is overruled automatically, and 329b(e) then runs the court's plenary power 30 days past that. The guide on setting aside a Texas default works the arithmetic through.

North Carolina's affidavit schedule. Rule 59(c): affidavits are served with the motion; the opposing party has 10 days to serve opposing affidavits, extendable by up to 30 more days.

Grounds are more alike than the deadlines

Ohio Civ.R. 59(A) and N.C. Rule 59(a) list nearly the same causes: irregularity in the proceedings preventing a fair trial; misconduct of the jury or prevailing party; accident or surprise ordinary prudence could not have guarded against; excessive or inadequate damages given under the influence of passion or prejudice; newly discovered evidence that reasonable diligence could not have produced at trial; and error of law.

FRCP 59(a)(1) takes a different route to the same place, authorizing a new trial "for any reason for which a new trial has heretofore been granted in an action at law in federal court" after a jury trial, or for which a rehearing has been granted in equity after a nonjury trial.

FRCP 59(a)(2) adds a power specific to bench trials: after a nonjury trial the court may, on a new-trial motion, open the judgment, take additional testimony, amend findings of fact and conclusions of law or make new ones, and direct entry of a new judgment.

Why the date matters beyond the motion

In most systems a timely post-trial motion suspends the time to appeal, and an untimely one does not. Appeal deadlines themselves live in each system's appellate rules — the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure, the California Rules of Court, and so on — which are outside what this site publishes. What we can tell you is which motions are timely, because that question is answered by the civil rules above.

The practical consequence is that missing a post-trial deadline by a day can forfeit both the motion and the appeal, and no court can extend it.

A short checklist

1. Find the trigger. Entry of judgment (federal, NC, OH, IL), the judgment being signed (TX), the verdict (PA), or service of notice of entry (CA).
2. Use the shortest applicable period, and don't assume the federal 28 days travels.
3. Check whether service by mail adds anything — in California it expressly does not.
4. Preserve the grounds — Pennsylvania requires it explicitly, and other systems reach the same result through waiver doctrine.
5. File affidavits with the motion where the rule says so (FRCP 59(c), NC 59(c)).
6. Don't rely on an extension. Federal Rule 6(b)(2), Georgia § 9-11-6(b) and California CCP 1013 each remove these from the ordinary extension machinery.

Where these rules live

• FRCP 6 — Computing and Extending Time
• FRCP 50 — Judgment as a Matter of Law
• FRCP 52 — Findings and Conclusions
• FRCP 59 — New Trial; Altering or Amending a Judgment
• FRCP 60 — Relief from a Judgment or Order
• CCP 657 — Grounds for New Trial
• CCP 659 — Notice of Intention to Move for New Trial
• CCP 663a — Motion to Set Aside Judgment
• CPLR 4404 — Post-Trial Motion for Judgment or New Trial
• CPLR 4405 — Time and Judge for Motion
• 735 ILCS 5/2-1202 — Post-Trial Motions, Jury Cases
• 735 ILCS 5/2-1203 — Post-Trial Motions, Non-Jury Cases
• Pa.R.C.P. 227.1 — Post-Trial Relief
• Ohio Civ.R. 59 — New Trials
• N.C. R. Civ. P. 59 — New Trials
• Tex. R. Civ. P. 329b — Time for Filing Motions

This page explains what the rules say. It isn't legal advice, and appeal deadlines come from appellate rules this site doesn't publish.