In court, a stay is an order that temporarily pauses a legal proceeding, the enforcement of a judgment, or some other action in a case. It preserves the status quo while a specific issue gets resolved, whether that’s an appeal, a bankruptcy filing, a challenge to evidence, or a competing legal process. A stay doesn’t end the case or wipe out what came before it; everything picks up where it left off once the stay expires or a court lifts it.
Stays come in several forms. Some kick in automatically the moment a triggering event occurs. Others require a written motion and a judge’s discretion. The type that applies to your situation determines what’s paused, for how long, and what it costs to get.
What a Stay Actually Does
Think of a stay as a legal pause button. It freezes the specific action the stay targets, such as collecting on a judgment, moving forward with trial, or enforcing an injunction. It doesn’t resolve the underlying dispute and it doesn’t eliminate obligations you owe.
That last point trips people up. If a money judgment against you is stayed pending appeal, post-judgment interest typically keeps accruing the entire time the stay is in place. In federal court, interest begins running from the date the judgment is entered under 28 USC 1961 and continues through the appeal, compounded annually at a rate tied to the one-year Treasury yield for the week before judgment.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 1961 – Interest A stay buys you time, not forgiveness.
A stay is also different from related orders people sometimes confuse it with. A dismissal ends a case entirely. A continuance reschedules a particular hearing or deadline. An injunction orders a party to do or stop doing something specific, which creates new obligations rather than suspending existing ones. Courts use these tools alongside each other, but they serve different purposes.
Stays That Happen Automatically
Two common stays require no motion, no hearing, and no judicial discretion. They activate on their own.
The 30-Day Stay After a Civil Judgment
Under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 62, enforcement of a civil judgment is automatically stayed for 30 days after the judgment is entered.2Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 62 – Stay of Proceedings to Enforce a Judgment During that window, the winning party cannot garnish wages, seize assets, or take other collection action. The 30 days align with the deadline for filing most civil appeals, giving the losing party time to decide whether to appeal and arrange a longer stay if necessary.
This automatic stay doesn’t cover everything. Orders granting injunctions, receiverships, and patent accounting directives can be enforced immediately, even while an appeal is pending, unless the court specifically orders otherwise.2Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 62 – Stay of Proceedings to Enforce a Judgment If you’re on the losing end of an injunction, waiting 30 days to comply could land you in contempt.
The Bankruptcy Automatic Stay
Filing a bankruptcy petition triggers an immediate and broad automatic stay under 11 USC 362.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 362 – Automatic Stay The stay halts most collection activity against the debtor. Lawsuits, foreclosures, wage garnishments, and debt collection calls all stop the moment the petition is filed. No court order is needed.
The stay remains in place until the bankruptcy case is closed or dismissed, or the debtor receives a discharge. A creditor who wants out from under the stay has to ask the court for relief and show cause.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 362 – Automatic Stay
The bankruptcy stay is powerful, but it has real exceptions. It does not stop:
- Criminal proceedings against the debtor.
- Actions to establish paternity, set or modify child support or alimony, resolve custody, or collect domestic support from property that isn’t part of the bankruptcy estate.
- Tax audits and the issuance of deficiency notices by the IRS or state tax agencies.
Repeat filers face additional limits. If your previous bankruptcy case was dismissed within the past year, the automatic stay in your new filing expires after just 30 days unless you convince the court to extend it by showing good faith. If two or more prior cases were dismissed within the preceding year, the stay doesn’t go into effect at all, and you’d have to ask the court to impose one.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 362 – Automatic Stay
Stays Pending Appeal
Filing an appeal does not, by itself, stop enforcement. A stay pending appeal has to be requested, and courts don’t grant them casually. You are asking to delay something another court already decided.
The Four-Factor Test
Federal courts weigh four factors when deciding whether to grant a stay pending appeal, a framework the Supreme Court set out in Hilton v. Braunskill and reaffirmed in Nken v. Holder:4Library of Congress. Nken v. Holder, 556 US 418 (2009)
- The likelihood the requesting party will succeed on the merits of the appeal.
- Whether the requesting party will suffer irreparable harm without a stay.
- Whether a stay will substantially injure the opposing party.
- Where the public interest lies.
No single factor automatically decides the question, but irreparable harm and likelihood of success tend to carry the most weight. A party who cannot show at least a reasonable chance of winning the appeal will struggle to get a stay regardless of how the other factors cut.
Procedurally, you have to ask the trial court for a stay first. Only if the trial court denies the request, or if going there would be impractical, can you seek a stay from the appellate court.5Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure Rule 8 – Stay or Injunction Pending Appeal The Supreme Court imposes a similar exhaustion requirement for stay applications: lower courts first, except in extraordinary circumstances.6Legal Information Institute. Supreme Court Rules Rule 23 – Stays
The Supersedeas Bond
When a money judgment is involved, courts almost always require the losing party to post a supersedeas bond before granting a stay pending appeal. The bond guarantees that if the appeal fails, the winning party can still collect.2Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 62 – Stay of Proceedings to Enforce a Judgment
The bond amount usually equals the full judgment plus estimated interest and costs that will accrue during the appeal, often somewhere between 110% and 150% of the original judgment. On a $500,000 judgment, that could mean posting a bond of $550,000 to $750,000. Some local rules specify the formula; others leave the amount to the judge’s discretion. The appellant pays a premium to a surety company, and that premium is an out-of-pocket cost whether the appeal succeeds or not. A successful appellant may recover the bond premium as taxable costs.
For large judgments, the bond requirement can effectively block a stay if the losing party can’t finance one. Some states cap the maximum bond required, but federal courts have no statutory cap, though judges have discretion to accept alternative security such as letters of credit or cash deposits.
Discovery Stays
Courts sometimes pause the discovery process, including document requests, depositions, and interrogatories, while a threshold motion is pending. The most common scenario is a request to stay discovery while a motion to dismiss is briefed and decided.
Filing a motion to dismiss does not automatically stay discovery. Stays of discovery are disfavored, and the moving party has to show good cause. Judges weigh the burden discovery would impose, the prejudice to the other side from delay, and whether the motion raises a threshold issue such as jurisdiction or immunity. Some judges take a preliminary look at the strength of the motion to dismiss before deciding; a strong motion makes a discovery stay more likely.
Congress has mandated automatic discovery stays in a few specific contexts, including shareholder lawsuits filed under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act once a motion to dismiss is filed, and cases where a defendant raises qualified immunity.
Stays in Criminal Cases
Stays in criminal proceedings serve different purposes than in civil cases, and constitutional protections drive many of them.
A defendant might seek a stay to challenge evidence obtained through an unlawful search. If the court grants it, the trial pauses while the suppression issue is resolved. When civil and criminal cases involve the same facts, a civil case may be stayed to protect the defendant’s Fifth Amendment rights, preventing civil testimony from being used in the parallel criminal prosecution. Fraud investigations are the classic example.
Competency proceedings also function as a stay. Under 18 USC 4241, if there is reasonable cause to believe a defendant cannot understand the proceedings or assist in their own defense, the court orders an evaluation. A defendant found incompetent is committed for treatment, initially for up to four months to determine whether competency can be restored, with the possibility of additional time if restoration appears likely. The case stays frozen until the defendant can participate.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 4241 – Determination of Mental Competency to Stand Trial
How to Request a Stay
Obtaining a discretionary stay starts with a written motion. The motion needs to lay out why the stay is necessary, what harm will result without it, and why the balance of interests favors pausing the proceedings. Supporting evidence and legal authority accompany the motion, and the burden sits entirely with the party asking for the stay. The opposing party gets a chance to respond, and judges often hold a hearing before ruling.
Timing is critical. In civil cases, the automatic 30-day stay after judgment gives you a built-in window to file a motion for a longer stay and arrange a supersedeas bond. Miss that window without a bond in place, and the winning party can begin collecting immediately.2Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 62 – Stay of Proceedings to Enforce a Judgment At the appellate level, your application has to explain why the lower court’s denial of a stay was wrong, or why asking the lower court first would be impractical.5Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure Rule 8 – Stay or Injunction Pending Appeal
Courts deny stay requests more often than they grant them. Weak merits kill most of them: if the court sees little chance the requesting party will prevail, there’s no reason to delay. Harm to the opposing party is the next big barrier, especially when the winning party has a time-sensitive interest in enforcement. Public interest can also tip the balance in cases involving environmental enforcement, public health, or consumer protection.
What Happens if Someone Violates a Stay
A stay is a court order, and ignoring it has real consequences. Courts enforce violations through contempt, and they distinguish between two types.
Civil contempt aims to force compliance. A party who violates a stay can be fined or jailed until they stop the prohibited conduct, and the violator holds the keys to their own release by complying. Courts also award compensatory damages to cover losses the violation caused.
Criminal contempt punishes past disobedience. A creditor who deliberately ignores a bankruptcy automatic stay and seizes the debtor’s property can face fines and jail time as punishment, and complying after the fact doesn’t undo the penalty. Under the bankruptcy statute, anyone injured by a willful violation of the automatic stay can recover actual damages including attorney’s fees, with punitive damages available in egregious cases.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 362 – Automatic Stay
Actions taken in violation of a stay are often voidable. A court can reverse a sale of protected property, undo a wrongful garnishment, or set aside other actions and require the violator to compensate the injured party. If a stay is in place, treat it as absolute until a court says otherwise.