Motion for New Trial in California: Grounds, Deadlines, and Filing

A motion for new trial in California asks the trial court to set aside the verdict and rehear the case because something went wrong during the proceedings. In a civil case, you file a notice of intention within 15 days after notice of entry of judgment, serve your memorandum and any supporting affidavits within 10 days after that, and the court has 75 days to rule before the motion is denied by operation of law. Every one of those deadlines is rigid, and none of them can be extended by stipulation or by the extra time normally allowed for mail service.¹

Grounds That Actually Support a Motion

Losing is not a ground. Code of Civil Procedure Section 657 lists seven specific reasons a civil court can order a new trial, and your motion has to show that at least one of them materially affected your substantial rights.²

Procedural irregularity by the court, jury, or opposing party that prevented a fair trial.
Jury misconduct, including a verdict decided by coin flip or other random method. A juror’s own sworn statement can prove this.
Accident or surprise that reasonable preparation could not have anticipated.
Newly discovered evidence you could not have found earlier through reasonable diligence.
Excessive or inadequate damages.
Insufficient evidence to support the verdict, or a verdict against the law.
Legal error at trial that you objected to on the record at the time.

That last one trips people up. If you noticed a legal error during trial but did not object, you generally cannot use it as a ground now. Preserve objections in real time or lose them.

Criminal defendants operate under a different statute, Penal Code Section 1181, with its own list of nine grounds and a much tighter window: the motion must be filed before the court pronounces judgment, which is typically at sentencing.³⁴ The rest of this article addresses the civil procedure.

The 15-Day Filing Window

You can file your notice of intention at one of two points:

After the court announces its decision but before judgment is formally entered.
Within 15 days of the clerk mailing notice of entry of judgment, or 15 days after any party serves written notice of entry of judgment, whichever comes first. If nobody ever serves that notice, the outer limit is 180 days after entry of judgment.

Once one party files, every other party has 15 days from service of that notice to file their own.¹ The statute explicitly forbids courts and parties from extending this deadline, and the mailbox rule that gives you extra days for mail service does not apply. Miss the window and the court has no authority to hear you, regardless of how strong the underlying grounds may be.

What You File and When

Notice of Intention to Move for a New Trial

This document starts the clock. It has to identify which of the Section 657 grounds you are raising and state whether you will rely on affidavits, the court minutes, or both.¹ The notice itself is treated as the motion, so once it is on file the court considers a new trial motion pending on every ground listed.

Memorandum of Points and Authorities

Within 10 days of filing the notice of intention, serve and file a memorandum laying out your legal arguments. The opposing party then has 10 days to respond, and you have five days after that to reply.⁵ A judge can extend each of these periods by up to 10 additional days for good cause. If you skip the memorandum, the court can deny your motion without reaching the merits.⁶

Supporting Affidavits

When your grounds involve facts outside the trial record, such as jury misconduct or newly discovered evidence, you need sworn declarations. These are due in the same 10-day window as the memorandum.⁵

Proof of Service and Filing Fee

Every document must be served on all opposing parties, with a proof of service filed to confirm it. California’s statewide civil fee schedule charges $60 for a motion requiring a hearing, which covers a motion for new trial.⁷

How to Structure the Motion

California courts do not publish an official template, but the standard structure below is what judges expect to see.

The caption block goes at the top: court name (for example, “Superior Court of the State of California, County of Los Angeles”), case number, party names, and the title of the filing. Beneath that, list the hearing date, time, and department if one has been assigned.

The memorandum of points and authorities usually runs in this order:

Introduction. A concise summary of the case, the verdict, and the specific grounds you are raising. Name the Section 657 grounds by number and give the court a roadmap in two or three paragraphs.
Statement of facts. A narrative of the trial events that matter, focused tightly on the errors your motion targets. Cite the trial transcript by volume and page wherever possible.
Argument. The core of the motion. Each ground gets its own subheading and legal authority explaining why the error was prejudicial.
Conclusion. A short request asking the court to vacate the verdict and order a new trial on all or specified issues.

For longer motions, include a table of contents and a table of authorities. Attach declarations and exhibits as separately tabbed documents behind the memorandum. Local court rules sometimes impose page limits or extra formatting requirements, so check the rules for your specific superior court before filing.

The 75-Day Ruling Clock

Once the notice of intention is filed, a second deadline starts running, and this one binds the judge. The court has 75 days to rule, measured from the earlier of the clerk mailing notice of entry of judgment or a party serving written notice of entry of judgment. If neither notice has been given, the 75 days run from the date the first notice of intention was filed.⁸

If the court does not rule within 75 days, the motion is denied by operation of law. No hearing, no explanation, no further order. The denial simply happens.⁸ Track this date independently, because busy courts sometimes let it slip and the consequence lands entirely on the moving party.

When the court does grant a new trial, it must specify the grounds and give its reasoning in writing. If the order itself does not contain that explanation, the judge has 10 days after filing the order to prepare and file a separate written statement of reasons.⁹ The court cannot delegate drafting to either party’s attorney.

Conditional New Trials: Remittitur and Additur

If the real problem with the verdict is only the dollar amount, the court does not have to order a full retrial. Under Code of Civil Procedure Section 662.5, the judge can grant a conditional new trial that avoids retrial if the parties agree to adjust the damages.¹⁰

When damages are excessive, the court can order a new trial on the condition that the motion is denied if the winning party accepts a lower amount the court considers reasonable. That is remittitur. Additur works in reverse: when damages are inadequate, the court orders a new trial unless the losing party consents to paying a higher amount. If the relevant party refuses within the prescribed time, the conditional order becomes final and a new trial goes forward.

This matters when you plan your motion. If your complaint is really about the size of the award, you may end up with a modified judgment rather than a fresh trial.

If the Motion Is Denied

A denial is not independently appealable. You cannot file a separate appeal from just the denial; you raise it as an issue in your appeal of the underlying judgment.¹¹

Filing a valid notice of intention does buy you more time to appeal the judgment itself. If the motion is denied, your appeal deadline runs until the earliest of:

30 days after the clerk or a party serves the order denying the motion or a notice of entry of that order.
30 days after the motion is denied by operation of law when the 75-day clock expires.
180 days after entry of judgment.

This extension applies as long as the notice of intention was procedurally valid, even if the motion has no merit.¹¹ For conditional orders involving remittitur or additur, separate timing rules govern the appeal depending on whether a party accepts or rejects the adjustment.

Staying Enforcement While the Motion Is Pending

Filing a new trial motion does not automatically stop the other side from enforcing the judgment. The trial court has discretion to grant a stay of enforcement, but it is not required to.¹² Where the judgment would normally require a bond to stay enforcement on appeal, the court generally cannot grant a stay lasting more than 10 days beyond the appeal deadline without the opposing party’s consent.

If you are worried about collection while the motion is pending, file a separate motion to stay enforcement early. Waiting until wages are being garnished or bank accounts levied makes the request harder to win. Courts respond better when you move promptly and can show that enforcement would cause harm that cannot be undone if you ultimately prevail.

1
California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure – Section 659
2
California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure – Section 657
3
California Legislative Information. California Penal Code – Section 1181
4
Justia Law. California Penal Code – Section 1182
5
California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure – Section 659a
6
Judicial Branch of California. California Rules of Court Rule 3.1600
7
Judicial Branch of California. Statewide Civil Fee Schedule Effective January 1, 2026
8
California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure – Section 660
9
California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure – Chapter 7 Article 2
10
California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure – Section 662.5
11
Judicial Branch of California. California Rules of Court Rule 8.108
12
California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure – Section 918