A motion to renew and reargue in New York asks the same judge who issued an order to take another look at it under CPLR 2221. Reargument tells the judge they overlooked or misapprehended facts or law that were already in the papers. Renewal presents something new: evidence that wasn’t available before, or a change in the law since the ruling. The two motions are often filed together, but they rest on different grounds, follow different deadlines, and are decided independently.1New York State Senate. New York Civil Practice Law and Rules CVP Rule 2221
How Reargument and Renewal Differ
A motion to reargue says the court already had everything it needed and missed something in it. A motion to renew says new information exists that would change the outcome. That distinction drives everything else — what you can submit, when you have to file, and how the court evaluates the request.
Mixing the two is the most common way these motions get denied. New evidence slipped into a reargument argument gets rejected because reargument is confined to the original record. A renewal motion without a reason the evidence wasn’t produced earlier fails for the same structural reason. Treat them as separate motions even when you file them together.
Grounds and Deadline for Reargument
A motion to reargue rests on one argument: the court overlooked or misunderstood facts or law that were already in the original motion papers. You cannot introduce new evidence or raise legal theories you didn’t present the first time. The entire motion works within the four corners of what was already submitted.1New York State Senate. New York Civil Practice Law and Rules CVP Rule 2221
A typical example: the judge applied an outdated legal standard, or overlooked a specific document that was part of your original submission. Your motion has to pinpoint exactly which facts or legal principles the court missed. Vague disagreement with the outcome won’t carry the motion. And because reargument is addressed to the court’s discretion, even a well-crafted motion can be denied, and even one that’s granted can produce the same result on the second look.
The deadline is tight. You must file within 30 days after you’ve been served with a copy of the court’s order and written notice of its entry. Miss that window and the court won’t consider the motion. The 30-day deadline does not apply to motions to reargue decisions made by the Appellate Division or the Court of Appeals.1New York State Senate. New York Civil Practice Law and Rules CVP Rule 2221
Reargument is also not a second attempt at a better-written original motion. Courts regularly deny motions that simply restate the same points more persuasively or that raise arguments the party could have made the first time but didn’t.
Grounds and Deadline for Renewal
A motion to renew is built on something new. Either facts that weren’t available when you filed the original motion, or a change in the law that occurred after the court’s decision.1New York State Senate. New York Civil Practice Law and Rules CVP Rule 2221
For renewal based on new facts, two things must be true. The new evidence has to be significant enough that it would likely have changed the court’s decision. And you have to give a reasonable justification for why it wasn’t included in your original papers. A document that was genuinely unobtainable despite diligent efforts qualifies. A witness who only recently became available qualifies. Evidence you simply didn’t look hard enough for does not. Courts scrutinize the explanation closely, and this is where most renewal motions fail.1New York State Senate. New York Civil Practice Law and Rules CVP Rule 2221
Renewal based on a change in the law requires an actual change — a new statute that took effect, or a higher-court ruling that undermines the legal basis of the original order — and you have to show the change would actually alter the outcome. A tangentially related development in the law isn’t enough.1New York State Senate. New York Civil Practice Law and Rules CVP Rule 2221
CPLR 2221 doesn’t impose a specific filing deadline for a motion to renew. There’s no equivalent of the 30-day clock. Unreasonable delay still works against you, though. The longer you sit on new evidence, the harder it is to justify why you didn’t bring it to the court sooner.
Filing Both in a Single Motion
You can file one motion seeking both reargument and renewal in the alternative. It’s common when you believe the court overlooked something already in the record and you also have new facts to add. The statute requires you to identify and support each type of relief separately, and the court evaluates each request independently.1New York State Senate. New York Civil Practice Law and Rules CVP Rule 2221
Label each part distinctly. CPLR 2221 requires that a motion to reargue or renew be “identified specifically as such.”1New York State Senate. New York Civil Practice Law and Rules CVP Rule 2221
What to Include in the Motion Package
Your filing should contain:
- A notice of motion specifying the relief sought and the hearing date, time, and location.
- An affirmation or affidavit in support. For reargument, this details what the court overlooked. For renewal, it presents the new evidence and explains why it wasn’t available earlier.
- A memorandum of law citing the statutes and case law that support your request.
- Exhibits, including copies of the prior motion papers and the court’s original order. For renewal, attach the new evidence itself.
Where to File, Who Hears It, and the Fee
The motion goes to the judge who signed the original order, not to a higher court. If that judge is unavailable, the motion can be heard by another judge of the same court. If the original order was issued on default, the motion can be made to any judge of the court on notice.1New York State Senate. New York Civil Practice Law and Rules CVP Rule 2221
You file the papers with the court clerk, who stamps them and assigns a hearing date. In New York Supreme Court, the motion filing fee is $45.2New York State Unified Court System. Filing Fees
After filing, serve the opposing party or their attorney with the full motion package following the applicable court rules for service. Then file an affidavit of service with the clerk confirming when and how service was made.
No Automatic Stay of the Original Order
Filing a motion to renew or reargue does not stop the other side from enforcing the original order. If the court ordered you to pay money or take some action, that obligation remains in effect while your motion is pending. The automatic stay provisions in CPLR 5519 apply to appeals, not to motions for reconsideration at the trial court level.3New York State Senate. New York Civil Practice Law and Rules CVP Section 5519
If you need enforcement paused while the motion is pending, request a separate stay from the court. Filing the motion alone buys you no time.
The Appeal Deadline Trap
This is the trap that catches people. A motion to reargue does not extend your time to file a notice of appeal. The appeal clock runs from the original order, and the reargue motion does nothing to pause it. If you spend 30 days preparing and filing a motion to reargue, and the court then takes several weeks to decide it, your appeal deadline can pass while you wait.
A motion to renew works differently in one respect. If the court grants renewal and issues a new determination, your time to appeal runs from that new order. If renewal is denied, you’re back on the timeline from the original order.
The safest approach when you’re considering both reargument and a possible appeal is to file the notice of appeal within the required timeframe regardless of whether you’ve also filed a motion to reargue. You can withdraw the appeal later if the motion succeeds. You cannot resurrect an appeal deadline you’ve already missed.
If Your Case Is in Federal Court
CPLR 2221 is a New York state statute and does not apply in federal court. Federal reconsideration runs through two separate rules.
Rule 59(e) is the closest federal counterpart to a motion to reargue. It allows you to ask the court to alter or amend a judgment based on errors of law, newly available evidence, or a need to prevent injustice. You must file within 28 days after entry of the judgment.4Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 59 – New Trial; Altering or Amending a Judgment
Rule 60(b) covers broader grounds for relief from a final judgment, including mistake or excusable neglect, newly discovered evidence, fraud or misconduct by the opposing party, a void judgment, a satisfied or reversed judgment, and a catch-all for other justifying reasons. For the first three grounds, you must file within a reasonable time and no more than one year after entry of the judgment. For the remaining grounds, the standard is a reasonable time with no fixed outer limit.5United States Court of International Trade. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 60 – Relief from a Judgment or Order
Unlike New York reargument, a timely federal motion under Rule 59, or a Rule 60 motion filed within the Rule 59 timeframe, tolls the time to appeal. The 30-day appeal clock pauses and restarts from the date the court rules on the last remaining post-judgment motion. The motion has to be filed within 28 days — serving it on the opposing party is not enough to trigger tolling.6Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure Rule 4 – Appeal as of Right – When Taken If there’s any doubt about whether your motion qualifies as a tolling motion, file a protective notice of appeal inside the original 30-day window.