Rule 59 Deadline: New Trial or Alter Judgment in 28 Days

01 / PRACTICE NOTES

Filed within 28 days of entry, and the court cannot extend the time.

Rule 59(b) states that a motion for a new trial must be filed no later than 28 days after the entry of judgment. Rule 59(e) states that a motion to alter or amend a judgment must be filed no later than 28 days after the entry of the judgment. Both rules say filed, so the date is the filing date, and Rule 6(a)(4)(A) places the end of an electronic-filing day at midnight in the court's time zone unless the statute, local rule or court order says otherwise.

Rule 6(b)(2) provides that 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). Where Rule 6(b)(1) lets a court extend most deadlines for good cause, these motions sit outside that power. The decision to file is made inside the 28 days.

Rule 6(a)(1) counts the period. Exclude the entry day, count every following calendar day and include the last day. A judgment entered Wednesday, October 28, 2026 reaches day 28 on Wednesday, November 25, 2026. The trigger is entry, so Rule 6(d) does not apply and the calculator hides the service option.

02 / PRACTICE NOTES

Choose between the motion for a new trial and the motion to alter or amend.

Rule 59(a)(1) authorizes the court, on motion, to grant a new trial on all or some of the issues and to any party after a jury trial, for any reason for which a new trial has heretofore been granted in an action at law in federal court, and after a nonjury trial, for any reason for which a rehearing has heretofore been granted in a suit in equity. Rule 59(e) addresses the judgment itself: it lets a party ask the court to alter or amend what was entered.

The rule text fixes the time and the form of each motion, and the grounds come from the case law of your circuit. Build the research task with the circuit's standard for each motion open beside the draft.

Rule 59(d) allows the court, no later than 28 days after the entry of judgment, to order a new trial on its own for any reason that would justify granting one on a party's motion. After giving the parties notice and an opportunity to be heard, the court may grant a timely motion for a reason not stated in the motion, and in either event it must specify the reasons in its order.

03 / PRACTICE NOTES

A timely motion restarts the appeal period for every party.

Under Fed. R. App. P. 4(a)(4)(A), a timely motion to alter or amend the judgment under Rule 59, or for a new trial under Rule 59, causes the time to file an appeal to run for all parties from the entry of the order disposing of the last such remaining motion. A Rule 60 motion filed within the time allowed for a Rule 59 motion has the same effect, and so does a motion for judgment under Rule 50(b) or to amend findings under Rule 52(b).

If the court enters an order denying a timely Rule 59(e) motion on Tuesday, January 12, 2027, the 30-day appeal period runs from that entry to Thursday, February 11, 2027. A notice of appeal filed before the court disposes of the motion becomes effective when the order disposing of the last remaining motion is entered (FRAP 4(a)(4)(B)(i)). Calendar the motion date and the appeal date as two linked tasks.

Affidavits have their own times. When a motion for a new trial is based on affidavits, they must be filed with the motion; the opposing party has 14 days after being served to file opposing affidavits, and the court may permit reply affidavits (Rule 59(c)).

04 / PRACTICE NOTES

The same 28 days appear in neighboring rules.

Rule 50(b) gives the movant 28 days after entry of judgment to renew a motion for judgment as a matter of law, and Rule 50(d) gives a party against whom judgment as a matter of law is rendered 28 days after entry to file a Rule 59 motion for a new trial. Rule 52(b) allows a motion to amend findings, or make additional findings, filed no later than 28 days after the entry of judgment. One task with several 28-day subtasks covers the family.

Rule 60(b) motions have separate timing, and Rule 6(b)(2) also bars extension of that time. Review the time limits in Rule 60(c) with the facts of the motion open.

Enter state holidays and clerk closures in the calculator. Rule 6(a)(6)(C) counts days declared holidays by the state where the district court is located for periods measured after an event.

05 / PRACTICE NOTES

RuleX keeps the post-judgment motion date in the case, next to its source.

Create the case in RuleX, add a task for the Rule 59 motion with the calculated due date, and attach the judgment, the docket entry and the trial record. The case log records the rule, the trigger date and the holidays you applied, so every lawyer on the matter reads the same calculation and can reopen the source behind it.

Ask RuleX to read the judgment and the record together and draft the motion in Word, with the record citations placed in the text. Research, drafting and the calendar date live in one case file with the documents, and the 7-day free trial lets you set up your first matter today.