The types of motions in court group naturally by what they ask the judge to do and when in the case they’re filed. A motion is a formal written request asking a judge for a specific ruling or order, and under the federal rules every motion must state its grounds and the exact relief sought.1United States Courts. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure – Rule 7(b) Some motions try to end a lawsuit before it starts. Some manage the exchange of evidence. Others shape what the jury hears or challenge a verdict after it comes in. Criminal cases have their own signature motion for keeping unlawfully obtained evidence out of trial. The sections below walk through the main motion types in the order they tend to appear in a case.
How a Motion Works
Most motions follow the same rhythm. One side files a written request. The other side files a response, usually called an opposition. The moving party may file a short reply. The judge then rules.
A complete filing typically includes the motion itself, a memorandum laying out the facts and legal argument, a proposed order the judge can sign if persuaded, and any supporting evidence attached as exhibits. Deadlines for the opposition and reply depend on the court and the motion type.
For discovery disputes, many courts require the parties to “meet and confer” first, meaning they have to try in good faith to resolve the fight themselves before dragging in the judge.2Legal Information Institute. Meet and Confer Not every motion gets a hearing. Judges often decide routine motions on the papers. More complex ones may get oral argument, though a party can request argument without being guaranteed it.
Motions That Attack the Lawsuit Early
A defendant’s first move in a civil case is usually to attack the complaint itself rather than answer the allegations one by one. These motions test whether the case belongs in court at all.
Motion to Dismiss
A motion to dismiss argues that even if everything the plaintiff alleges is true, those facts don’t add up to a valid legal claim. The most common version uses Federal Rule 12(b)(6), which targets a complaint’s failure to state a claim on which relief can be granted.3Cornell Law Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 12 The court looks only at the complaint and anything attached to it, not outside evidence.
Other grounds work too. A defendant can argue the court lacks subject-matter or personal jurisdiction, that the plaintiff filed in the wrong venue, or that service was defective. All of these must be raised before the defendant files a formal answer.3Cornell Law Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 12
A dismissal “without prejudice” lets the plaintiff fix the complaint and refile. One “with prejudice” ends the case for good. If the court denies the motion, the defendant has 14 days to answer.3Cornell Law Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 12
Motion for a More Definite Statement
Sometimes a complaint is so vague the defendant can’t tell what they’re actually accused of. A motion for a more definite statement asks the court to order the plaintiff to clarify before the defendant has to respond.3Cornell Law Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 12 If granted, the plaintiff has 14 days to file a clearer version.
Motion for Default Judgment
When a defendant ignores the lawsuit entirely, the plaintiff doesn’t automatically win. The process has two steps. First, the clerk formally enters the defendant’s default. Second, the plaintiff seeks a default judgment, which is the actual court order granting relief.4Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 55
If the suit is for a precisely calculable amount, the clerk can enter judgment without a hearing. Otherwise, the plaintiff must apply to the judge, who may hold a damages hearing. A defendant who appeared at any earlier point in the case must get at least 7 days’ notice before the hearing.4Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 55 A court can set aside a default judgment for good cause, so a missed deadline isn’t necessarily permanent.
Motion to Amend the Complaint
After the initial window for automatic amendment closes, a plaintiff who wants to change or add claims needs the court’s permission. The rule is generous: courts should freely grant leave when justice requires it.5Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 15 Judges look at delay, prejudice to the other side, and whether the proposed changes would be futile. This motion often follows a dismissal without prejudice, since the plaintiff needs to fix the problems the court identified.
Motions for Emergency Relief
Some situations can’t wait for normal litigation timelines. When a party faces immediate, irreversible harm, two emergency motions can freeze the situation in place.
Temporary Restraining Order
A temporary restraining order is the fastest intervention a court offers. In extreme circumstances a judge can issue one without even notifying the other side, but the requesting party must show through sworn statements that waiting for notice would cause irreparable injury.6Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 65 The attorney must also certify in writing what efforts were made to give notice and why notice should be excused.
A TRO issued without notice expires in no more than 14 days, extendable once for the same period for good cause.6Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 65 Once it’s in place, the court must schedule a preliminary injunction hearing at the earliest possible time. The restrained party can move to dissolve the TRO on as little as 2 days’ notice.
Preliminary Injunction
A preliminary injunction lasts longer than a TRO and requires notice to the opposing party. To get one, the moving party must satisfy a four-factor test the Supreme Court set out in Winter v. Natural Resources Defense Council: likelihood of success on the merits, likely irreparable harm without the injunction, a balance of hardships favoring the moving party, and alignment with the public interest.7Justia. Winter v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., 555 U.S. 7 (2008)
Both TROs and preliminary injunctions require the moving party to post a security bond to cover costs and damages the other side would suffer if the restraint turns out to have been wrongful.6Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 65 These motions show up in trade secret fights, intellectual property disputes, domestic matters, and cases where a party is threatening to destroy evidence or move assets out of reach.
Motions During Discovery
Once a case survives the pleadings stage, the parties enter discovery and start exchanging documents, taking depositions, and gathering evidence. Disputes are common. Motions are how they get resolved.
Motion to Compel
When one side refuses to turn over requested documents, answer interrogatories, or otherwise cooperate, the requesting party can file a motion to compel. If the court grants it, the party or attorney whose conduct forced the motion generally has to pay the other side’s reasonable expenses, including attorney’s fees.8Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 37
Motion for Discovery Sanctions
Ignoring a court order to produce discovery is where things escalate. A court can treat disputed facts as established, bar the noncompliant party from introducing certain evidence or arguing certain defenses, strike pleadings, enter default judgment, or hold the party in contempt. On top of those sanctions, the court must order the party or attorney to pay the opposing side’s reasonable expenses and fees, unless the failure was substantially justified.8Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 37
Motion for a Protective Order
Discovery is not unlimited. A party facing requests that are overbroad, unduly burdensome, or that seek privileged information can ask the court for a protective order. The judge can narrow the scope, restrict who sees sensitive materials, or impose conditions on how information is shared. These motions appear frequently in cases involving trade secrets, proprietary business data, or private personal information.
Motion to Quash a Subpoena
Subpoenas can compel witnesses and third parties to produce documents or testify, but they have limits. The recipient (or a party to the case) can move to quash a subpoena that fails to allow reasonable time to comply, requires travel beyond the geographic limits in the rules, demands privileged information, or imposes an undue burden.9Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 45 Courts can also quash subpoenas that seek trade secrets or try to extract expert opinions without paying for them.
Motion for Continuance
A motion for continuance asks the court to push back a deadline or hearing date. Scheduling conflicts, medical issues, witness unavailability, and other legitimate reasons all come up. Courts grant these when the reason is genuine and the other side won’t be unfairly prejudiced. Filing one late or without a good explanation is a reliable way to irritate a judge.
Motions That Try to End the Case Without a Trial
Many civil cases never reach a jury. Two motion types let a party ask the court to resolve all or part of a case on the arguments and evidence already on file.
Motion for Judgment on the Pleadings
After both sides have filed their initial pleadings, either party can move for judgment on the pleadings. Like a motion to dismiss, this asks the court to decide the case based solely on the written pleadings. The difference is timing: a motion to dismiss comes before the answer, while judgment on the pleadings comes after.3Cornell Law Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 12 If either side submits outside evidence and the court considers it, the motion converts into one for summary judgment, and both parties get a chance to present additional material.
Motion for Summary Judgment
Summary judgment is one of the most powerful tools in civil litigation. It asks the judge to decide the case, or specific issues within it, without a trial because there is no genuine dispute about the key facts and the law clearly favors one side.10Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 56
Unlike motions based only on the pleadings, summary judgment relies on actual discovery evidence: deposition transcripts, documents, sworn declarations, admissions. The judge does not weigh credibility. The question is whether, viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the non-moving party, a reasonable jury could find for that party. If not, the case ends.
A party can file for summary judgment at any time up to 30 days after the close of discovery, unless the court sets a different schedule.10Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 56 Plaintiffs and defendants alike can bring the motion, and it can target the whole case or specific claims. Winning on even a couple of claims can dramatically simplify what goes to trial.
Trial and Post-Trial Motions
Once a case reaches trial, motions shift to controlling what the jury sees and, after the verdict, challenging the result.
Motion in Limine
Filed before trial (and sometimes during it), a motion in limine asks the judge to rule on whether specific evidence should be admitted or excluded. The goal is to keep prejudicial, irrelevant, or inadmissible information away from the jury before it ever surfaces in open court.11Legal Information Institute. Motion in Limine Common targets include prior bad acts, settlement discussions, inflammatory photographs, and expert testimony of questionable reliability. Once a jury hears something damaging, telling them to disregard it rarely undoes the harm.
Judgment as a Matter of Law
During trial, after the opposing side has finished presenting its evidence, a party can move for judgment as a matter of law, sometimes called a directed verdict in state courts. The motion argues that the evidence is so one-sided no reasonable jury could find for the other party.12Cornell Law Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 50 Judges grant these sparingly, since the moving party must show a complete absence of evidence on at least one essential element of the opponent’s case.
Renewed Judgment as a Matter of Law
If the jury returns a verdict and the losing party believes the evidence never supported it, they can file a renewed motion for judgment as a matter of law, asking the judge to override the jury. The motion must be filed within 28 days of the entry of judgment, and that deadline cannot be extended.12Cornell Law Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 50 A party can only bring the renewed motion if they made the same request during trial. Skipping the mid-trial version waives the right to challenge the verdict on these grounds afterward.
Motion for a New Trial
A motion for a new trial asks for a do-over rather than a direct win. Grounds include significant legal errors during trial, a verdict against the weight of the evidence, jury misconduct, improper damages, and newly discovered evidence that couldn’t have been found earlier.13Cornell Law Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 59 Either party can bring it after a jury or bench trial, and the same 28-day post-judgment deadline applies.12Cornell Law Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 50
Motion for Relief From Judgment
Even after the standard post-trial deadlines have passed, a party can ask the court to reopen a final judgment in limited circumstances. Valid grounds include mistake or excusable neglect, newly discovered evidence that reasonable diligence couldn’t have uncovered in time, fraud or misrepresentation by the opposing party, a void judgment, or a prior judgment that has since been reversed.14Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 60
For claims based on mistake, new evidence, or fraud, the motion must be filed within one year of the judgment. For other grounds, the standard is “within a reasonable time.”14Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 60 This motion is a safety valve for extraordinary circumstances, not a second appeal.
Motions in Criminal Cases
Most of the motions above apply to civil lawsuits. Criminal cases have their own signature motion type that every defendant should understand.
Motion to Suppress Evidence
A motion to suppress asks the court to exclude evidence obtained in violation of the defendant’s constitutional rights. The foundation is the exclusionary rule, grounded in the Fourth Amendment’s protection against unreasonable searches and seizures. If police conducted an illegal search, coerced a confession, or otherwise violated the defendant’s rights to get evidence, the remedy is keeping that evidence out of trial.
The Supreme Court made this rule binding on state courts in Mapp v. Ohio, holding that evidence obtained through unconstitutional searches is inadmissible in any criminal trial, state or federal.15Justia. Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U.S. 643 (1961) In federal courts, these motions are governed by Rule 41(h) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure.
A successful suppression motion can be case-ending. If the suppressed evidence was the prosecution’s key proof, the charges may be dismissed or significantly reduced. Defense attorneys file these before trial so the ruling is in place before the jury hears anything, and prosecutors fight them aggressively because losing can collapse an otherwise strong case.
Key Deadlines to Watch
Missing a filing deadline can be worse than losing the motion itself, because a late filing may mean the court never considers the argument. Federal courts follow specific time-computation rules under Rule 6.16Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 6 Some of the most important specific deadlines:
- Motion to dismiss: must be filed before the answer, which is due within 21 days of service, or 60 to 90 days if service was waived.3Cornell Law Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 12
- Summary judgment: can be filed at any time up to 30 days after the close of all discovery, unless the court sets a different schedule.10Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 56
- Renewed judgment as a matter of law and motion for a new trial: must be filed within 28 days after entry of judgment. The deadline cannot be extended.12Cornell Law Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 50
- Relief from judgment for mistake, new evidence, or fraud: must be filed within one year of the judgment.14Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 60
State courts set their own deadlines, and local federal courts may add requirements through local rules. Always check the specific rules for the court where the case is pending.
Consequences of Filing a Frivolous Motion
Every motion filed with a court carries an implicit promise: the person signing it certifies that the motion is not being filed to harass, delay, or drive up costs, and that the legal arguments have a legitimate basis in existing law or a reasonable argument for changing it.17Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 11
When a court finds that a motion violates this standard, it can impose sanctions on the attorney, the law firm, or the party responsible. Sanctions must be limited to what is necessary to deter the behavior and can include orders to pay the opposing party’s attorney’s fees and expenses, monetary penalties paid to the court, or non-monetary directives like required legal education.17Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 11 Law firms are jointly responsible for violations by their attorneys, absent exceptional circumstances. Attorneys who develop a reputation for filing meritless motions find that judges stop giving them the benefit of the doubt, which hurts every future client they represent.