A Florida motion for rehearing asks the trial judge to reconsider a final order or judgment because of a specific legal or factual error the court overlooked, and under Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.530 you have just 15 days from the date the clerk files the judgment to serve it. That is one of the shortest deadlines in Florida civil practice, and getting it right matters for a second reason: a properly filed motion also pauses your appeal clock.
The 15-Day Deadline
The motion must be served within 15 days of the date the final judgment or order is filed by the clerk of court. The controlling date is the clerk’s file stamp, not the date the judge signed the order and not the date a copy arrived in your inbox. Several days can pass between signing and filing, and readers who count from the wrong date lose the motion before they draft it.
This deadline is jurisdictional. The court has no authority to extend it, no matter the reason for the delay. The same 15-day window applies in family law and small claims matters under their corresponding rules.
One useful feature: a timely motion can be amended to add new grounds at any time before the court rules on it. If you file within the 15 days and later spot an additional error, you can ask leave to supplement. The judge also has power to order rehearing on the court’s own initiative within 15 days of entering judgment, though that is uncommon.
Grounds That Actually Work
Courts do not grant rehearings because a party is unhappy with the outcome. The motion has to point to a specific, correctable mistake, and reargument of points the court already considered and rejected will get nowhere.
Three grounds do the real work.
The first is that the court overlooked a controlling statute or binding precedent. If a ruling in a contract dispute conflicts with a Florida statute governing that type of contract, a rehearing motion is the right vehicle to put that authority in front of the judge.
The second is that the court misunderstood a key fact already in the record. If a final judgment in a family law case states the marital home was purchased in 2015 but bank records in evidence show it was purchased in 2010, a rehearing motion can correct that error. The important limit: the fact must already be part of the record. This is not a chance to introduce evidence you could have offered earlier.
The third is that the court failed to make required findings of fact. This ground carries a trap worth knowing about. If you intend to challenge missing findings on appeal, you generally must raise the issue in a motion for rehearing first. Skip that step and the appellate court may refuse to hear the argument.
Rehearing or New Trial: Which One Fits
Rule 1.530 covers two motions people often confuse. A motion for rehearing targets matters decided by a judge without a jury, including bench trials, summary judgments, family law hearings, and probate matters. A motion for new trial targets jury verdicts and asks the court to throw out the result and try the case again before a new jury.
Both share the 15-day service deadline, but the label has to match the proceeding. Filing a motion for “new trial” after a summary judgment aims at the wrong mechanism. If the court grants a rehearing in a non-jury matter, it can reopen the judgment, take additional testimony, and enter a new judgment.
What to Put in the Motion
Open by identifying the specific final judgment or order being challenged, including the date it was filed. From there, focus on the exact error. Broad complaints about unfairness will not work. Point to the specific statute, case, exhibit number, or transcript page the court got wrong or ignored.
Two things have to be on the page: the mistake, and why fixing it would change the result. A factual error with no bearing on the outcome will not warrant rehearing. But if the court relied on an incorrect purchase date when calculating equitable distribution, and the correct date shifts the analysis, that connection between error and outcome is what the motion needs to spell out.
Keep it short. Judges see through motions that use rehearing as cover for relitigating the whole case. The strongest ones read like a diagnostic report: here is the problem, here is the record evidence showing it, here is what should change.
Filing and Serving the Motion
All Florida court filings go through the statewide Florida Courts E-Filing Portal. Upload the motion as a PDF, and the portal files it with the clerk of the county where the case was heard.
Service on the opposing party happens at the same time. When the other side has an attorney of record, the portal handles service automatically through an email notification with a link to the document. No extra step is needed for represented parties.
Serving an unrepresented party who has not designated an email address for electronic service takes more work. Under Florida Rule of Judicial Administration 2.516, you serve by delivering a physical copy or mailing one to the party’s last known address. Service by mail is complete on the date of mailing. Hand delivery is complete when you give the copy to the person, leave it at their office with someone in charge, or leave it at their home with a household member who is at least 15 years old.
What Happens After You File
The opposing party can file a written response arguing that the original decision was correct. Rule 1.530 does not set a specific deadline for responses to rehearing motions, though the court may impose one.
The judge decides first whether a hearing is necessary. Many rehearing motions are resolved on the papers alone, especially when the alleged error is straightforward. More complex issues, or motions that need clarification of the factual record, are likelier to draw oral argument. Either way, the court issues a written order.
If the judge denies the motion, the original judgment stands. If the judge grants it, what follows depends on the error. The court may issue an amended judgment correcting a specific factual or legal mistake. In non-jury matters, it may reopen the record, take additional testimony on the disputed issue, and enter a new judgment. In more significant cases, it may vacate the original judgment entirely and start fresh on the affected issues.
Granting rehearing does not guarantee a different outcome. It means the court has agreed to look again. The result after that second look can be the same.
How Rehearing Affects Your Appeal Deadline
This is where the strategy behind the motion becomes clear. You normally have 30 days from the date a final order is rendered to file a notice of appeal with the clerk of the lower tribunal. That 30-day deadline is jurisdictional. Miss it and the appellate court cannot hear the case.
A timely and authorized motion for rehearing suspends rendition of the final order. The appeal clock stops while the motion is pending and does not restart until the court files a written order resolving it. Once the judge denies or grants the motion, you then have 30 days from that new order to file the notice of appeal.
The catch sits in the words “timely and authorized.” A motion served after the 15-day window pauses nothing. Neither does an unauthorized motion, such as one directed at a non-final order that Rule 1.530 does not cover. File either and the original 30-day appeal clock keeps running quietly in the background, and by the time the trial court rules, the appeal window may already be closed.
One older concern has been resolved. Under the current version of Florida Rule of Appellate Procedure 9.020(i), filing a notice of appeal while a rehearing motion is still pending does not abandon the motion. The appeal is held in abeyance until the trial court files a written order disposing of the motion. Advice written before 2015 on this point may be outdated.
If you plan to appeal and also want rehearing, make sure the motion is served within the 15 days and targets a final order covered by Rule 1.530. Get either element wrong and you can lose both the rehearing and the appeal.