Home/Filing types/Filing a motion

How do I file a motion in court?

In short

• A motion asks for something specific. It states what you want, the legal grounds for it, and the facts the judge needs in order to give it to you.
• Three rule sets govern it at once: the procedural rules for your court system, the local rules of your courthouse, and the individual judge’s own standing orders. All three, every time.
• The other side almost always has to be served, and in many courts you must talk to them before you file certain motions at all.
• There is a deadline to oppose a motion and a deadline to reply, and if you let the opposition deadline pass the motion can be granted against you as unopposed.
• Most motions need supporting evidence — a declaration or affidavit, and the documents it authenticates. Argument alone is rarely enough.
• Some states do not use the word “motion” for the thing you need. California family courts use a Request for Order; California civil courts use a demurrer where other states use a motion to dismiss; Louisiana uses exceptions.

People search this several ways. How to file a motion, how to write a motion to the court, what does filing a motion mean, parts of a legal motion, motion template for court, where do I file a motion. It is all the same filing and this page covers all of it.

What is a motion in court?

A case is a series of decisions, and a motion is how you ask for one. Dismiss this case. Order the other side to hand over the documents. Postpone the trial. Let me file this late. Enter judgment because there is nothing genuinely in dispute. Set aside the default that was entered while I was in the hospital.

In federal court, Fed. R. Civ. P. 7(b) states the requirement in one sentence: a request for a court order must be made by motion, the motion must be in writing unless made during a hearing or trial, it must state with particularity the grounds for seeking the order, and it must state the relief sought. Every state has an equivalent rule, and most read almost the same.

Two things follow from that sentence. “With particularity” means a motion that says “for good cause shown” and nothing more has not stated grounds. And “the relief sought” means the judge should be able to read the first paragraph and know exactly what order to sign.

The judge is not obliged to figure out what you want. A motion that is unclear about the order it asks for is the most common thing a busy court denies without reaching the substance.

What are the parts of a motion?

Most courts expect the same package, sometimes as one document and sometimes as several filed together.

How do I write a motion?

How to write a motion, in eight steps. The first two are where almost every denied motion is lost.

1. Find the rule that authorises what you are asking for. Every motion rests on a rule or a statute. A motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim is Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6) federally, and something else in your state. Summary judgment is Rule 56. An extension of time is Rule 6(b). Relief from a judgment is Rule 59(e) or Rule 60(b), and which one you use depends on how long ago the judgment was entered. Naming the correct rule is half the credibility of the filing.
2. Read your court’s local rules, and the judge’s standing order. This is the step people skip and it is the step that decides whether the motion is read. Federal district courts adopt local rules under 28 U.S.C. § 2071 and Fed. R. Civ. P. 83, and no two districts are the same: page limits, font size, line spacing, whether a proposed order is required, whether you need a hearing date before filing, whether courtesy copies go to chambers, how a discovery dispute must be raised. Individual judges then add standing orders on top. State courts do the same, one courthouse at a time.
3. Get your deadline right. A motion often has a deadline of its own — a scheduling order’s cutoff for dispositive motions, a rule’s window for a post-judgment motion, a statutory period for a motion to set aside a default. Federally, Rule 6(c)(1) requires a written motion and notice of hearing to be served at least 14 days before the hearing unless a rule or the court says otherwise, and Rule 6(d) adds three days for certain methods of service. Your state’s counting rules will differ, including whether weekends and holidays count.
4. State the relief first. Open with one sentence saying exactly what order you want. Then the rule. Then the facts. Then the argument.
5. Write the facts from the evidence you actually have. Every factual assertion in the argument should be traceable to a paragraph of your declaration or to an exhibit. A judge reading a motion is checking whether each claim is supported, and an unsupported assertion tends to make the supported ones look weaker.
6. Find the controlling case law. The decisions that bind your court: your state’s appellate courts for a state case, your federal circuit and the Supreme Court for a federal one. Persuasive authority from elsewhere is worth citing only when there is nothing binding, and it should be labelled as what it is. Then confirm each case is still good law. This is the step free research tools do worst.
7. Cite properly and quote accurately. Most courts expect standard citation form and pin cites to the page you are relying on. A misquoted case is worse than no case.
8. Keep it inside the limits. If the local rule says 25 pages, 25 pages is the limit, and a request to exceed it is its own motion, usually filed in advance.

Is there a motion template for court, or a sample motion pro se filers can use?

There are thousands of each, and that is the problem with them. A template carries the shape of a motion — caption, heading, signature block — and none of the three things that decide whether it is granted: the correct rule for your relief, your courthouse’s own formatting and filing requirements, and the authority that binds your judge. Many courts publish their own fillable forms for common motions, and those are worth using because they are already built to that court’s rules. A generic template found online is built to nobody’s.

How do I format a motion for court?

There is no national format, and that is the point. How to format a motion for court is answered by three documents in this order: your court system’s procedural rules, your courthouse’s local rules, and your judge’s standing order. Between them they fix the caption layout, the font and point size, line spacing, margins, page or word limits, whether a table of contents is required, whether a proposed order must accompany it, how exhibits are tabbed and whether the whole thing is filed as one PDF or several. A motion formatted to another court’s rules looks wrong to the clerk before anyone reads a word of it.

How do I file and serve a motion?

Where do I file a motion?

With the clerk of the court where your case is already pending, under the same case number. Not in a different court, and not in the appellate court.

Filing

Most courts now use electronic filing, and most allow a self-represented party to file on paper at the clerk’s window or by mail, sometimes with a separate application for e-filing access. The clerk’s office will tell you the format and the number of copies. A prisoner’s filing is generally treated as filed on the day it is handed to prison officials for mailing under the prison mailbox rule, which matters enormously for a deadline — but confirm how your court applies it.

Fees

Most motions carry no separate fee, though some do: a motion to appear pro hac vice, some post-judgment motions, motions in certain state courts. If you cannot pay, the fee waiver application is a separate filing with its own form, and it is called something different depending on where you are — in forma pauperis in federal court, a Request to Waive Court Fees in California, a Statement of Inability to Afford Payment of Court Costs in Texas, an affidavit of indigency in Massachusetts and Tennessee.

Service

Every other party gets a copy of everything you file. Under Fed. R. Civ. P. 5, papers after the original complaint are served on a party’s attorney if they have one, and electronic filing usually accomplishes service automatically on registered users. A party who is not registered gets mail or hand delivery, and you certify what you did. Serving the wrong person, or the party directly when they are represented by counsel, is a common and avoidable error.

What happens after I file a motion?

The other side gets a period to oppose, set by rule or by local rule. You usually get a shorter period to reply, and the reply is limited to answering what the opposition raised — new arguments raised for the first time in a reply are routinely disregarded.

The court either decides on the papers or holds a hearing. Where a hearing is held, it is usually short and the judge has read the papers. Some courts issue a tentative ruling before the hearing, which you should check, because in some courts failing to contest a tentative in the required way means it becomes the order.

Then an order issues. If the motion is denied, ask whether the denial is with or without prejudice, because that decides whether you can bring it again. If it is denied and it disposed of your case, the next question is whether and when you can appeal — see how an appeal works and how long you have to file the notice.

How do I respond to a motion filed against me?

Find your deadline immediately — it comes from the rule or from the local rules, not from the other side’s cover letter. If you cannot meet it, a motion for an extension filed before the deadline is usually granted and one filed after it usually is not.

Understand what the motion actually asks for, and what standard applies. On a motion to dismiss, the court accepts your well-pleaded facts as true and asks whether they state a claim. On summary judgment, the court looks at the evidence and asks whether any material fact is genuinely disputed — and there you cannot rest on your pleading. You must put facts in the record, by declaration and exhibit, or the motion is granted.

Answer every ground the motion raises. An argument you do not address is usually treated as conceded.

And do not ignore it. In most courts an unopposed motion may be granted for that reason alone.

What is a motion for summary judgment, and how do I respond to one?

Summary judgment is the motion that ends most civil cases that do not settle, and it is the one a self-represented party is least prepared for. It deserves its own section.

Rule 56 explained: what it asks for

A motion for summary judgment asks the court to decide the case, or one claim in it, without a trial, on the ground that there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Federally that is Fed. R. Civ. P. 56. Every state has its own version, and California confusingly runs both a summary judgment and a summary adjudication track.

How do I file a motion for summary judgment?

Filing one, rather than opposing one, adds three requirements to the eight steps above. You must file the numbered statement of undisputed facts your court requires, each fact supported by a citation to admissible evidence. You must attach that evidence — declarations, deposition excerpts, authenticated documents — because the court decides on the record, not on the argument. And you must wait for the deadline your scheduling order sets for dispositive motions, which is one of the few deadlines in a civil case that is genuinely hard to extend.

Why it is different from a motion to dismiss

A motion to dismiss tests your complaint: the court assumes your facts are true and asks whether they add up to a claim. Summary judgment tests your evidence: the court assumes nothing and asks what you can actually prove. This is why the answer that worked at the pleading stage does not work here.

How to respond to a motion for summary judgment, and how to oppose summary judgment pro se

1. Calendar the deadline the day you are served. Opposition periods for summary judgment are often longer than for ordinary motions and are set by local rule. Missing it is usually the end of the case.
2. Answer the statement of undisputed facts, line by line. A statement of undisputed facts is a numbered list of the facts the moving party says nobody disputes. Most courts require the moving party to file a numbered list of facts it says are undisputed, and require you to respond to each one, admitting it or disputing it with a citation to evidence. In many courts a fact you do not properly dispute is deemed admitted — which is how cases are lost without anyone arguing the merits.
3. Put your evidence in the record. A sworn declaration from you, declarations from your witnesses, the documents, the deposition excerpts. You cannot rest on what your complaint said. If the evidence exists only in your head, it is not in the record.
4. Identify the genuine dispute. You do not have to win the fact. You have to show a reasonable jury could find for you on it. That is a lower bar than people assume and it is the bar to aim at.
5. Address every claim the motion attacks. A claim you do not defend is gone.
6. If you genuinely need discovery to respond, say so in the form your rules require rather than simply failing to respond. Federally that is a Rule 56(d) declaration explaining what facts you cannot present and why.

What happens if I lose summary judgment?

If you lose summary judgment on every claim, the case is over at the trial level and a final judgment is entered. What follows is an appeal, and a grant of summary judgment is reviewed de novo — no deference to the trial judge at all, which makes it one of the more favourable postures for an appellant. That is explained in the guide to appellate briefs and standards of review.

What is a motion called in my state?

Most states call it a motion. Some do not, and in those places searching for “motion” finds you the wrong form.

If the vocabulary in your court is not on this list, the question to ask the clerk is not “how do I file a motion” but “what is the filing that asks the judge to do this.”

What mistakes get a motion denied?

• The local rules, not read. Wrong page limit, no proposed order, no hearing date, no courtesy copy, filed in a format the court does not accept.
• The meet-and-confer requirement, skipped. In the courts that require it, the motion is denied on that ground alone and you file it again having wasted a month.
• No evidence. Argument in a memorandum with no declaration and no exhibits, on a motion where the judge needs facts.
• The opposition deadline, missed, and the motion granted as unopposed.
• No certificate of service, or service on the wrong person.
• Case law that is not binding on this court, or that has been overruled, offered as the reason the judge should rule your way.

Common questions

Rules and cases cited on this page

Fed. R. Civ. P. 5, 6, 7(b), 10(a), 11, 12(b), 37(a)(1), 56, 59(e), 60(b), 83 · 28 U.S.C. § 1746 · 28 U.S.C. § 2071 · 28 U.S.C. § 1654 · Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 473 · Cal. form FL-300 · Tex. R. Civ. P. 91a · the local rules of your district or courthouse

Related pages

What is a Section 1983 lawsuit? · What is post-conviction relief? · How do I write an appellate brief?