Motion to Set Aside Judgment in Georgia: Grounds, Deadlines, and Filing

A motion to set aside a judgment in Georgia is filed under O.C.G.A. 9-11-60 in the same court that entered the judgment, and it succeeds only on three specific grounds: the court lacked jurisdiction, the judgment resulted from fraud, accident, or mistake unmixed with your own negligence, or a nonamendable defect appears on the face of the record. It is not a chance to re-argue the merits. It targets judgments that came about through something fundamentally wrong, and for most grounds you have three years from the date of entry to act.¹

The Three Grounds Under O.C.G.A. 9-11-60(d)

Your motion must fit squarely within one of the three categories the statute allows. Vague complaints about the outcome will not survive.

Lack of Jurisdiction

If the court had no authority over you personally or no authority over the type of dispute, the judgment can be set aside. The most common version is defective service of process. If you were never properly served with the lawsuit, the court never acquired jurisdiction over you, and the resulting judgment is void.¹

Fraud, Accident, or Mistake

A judgment can be set aside when it resulted from fraud, an accident, a genuine mistake, or the acts of the opposing party, provided your own negligence or fault did not contribute. That last qualifier decides most of these motions. Simply forgetting to answer a complaint or ignoring deadlines will not carry the day. Fabricated evidence, active misrepresentation, or conduct by the other side that prevented you from participating is the kind of thing courts look for. Even where the opposing party acted badly, a judge will examine whether you could have prevented the outcome by acting more carefully. If your own inaction played a role, the motion will likely fail.¹

Nonamendable Defect on the Face of the Record

This ground applies when the court file or the pleadings themselves reveal a fatal flaw. It is not enough that the complaint stated its claim badly. The record must affirmatively show that no claim existed. A pleading that shows the statute of limitations had expired before the suit was filed, or that the plaintiff lacked standing, is the kind of defect that qualifies.¹

Void or Voidable: Why the Distinction Controls Everything

Before you calculate any deadline, figure out whether the judgment is void or merely voidable. A void judgment is one the court had no power to enter, most often because you were never served. Under O.C.G.A. 9-11-60(a), a void judgment can be attacked “in any court by any person,” with no filing deadline.¹

A voidable judgment has a procedural problem but was entered by a court with basic authority. It remains fully enforceable until a judge agrees to set it aside. You carry the burden of filing the right motion, on the right grounds, within the right timeframe. Fraud, accident, mistake, and nonamendable defect all fall on the voidable side.

Deadlines You Cannot Miss

The clock depends on the ground.

Lack of jurisdiction, meaning a void judgment: no time limit. It can be attacked at any time.¹
Fraud, accident, mistake, or nonamendable defect: three years from the date the judgment was entered.¹
Clerical errors under O.C.G.A. 9-11-60(g): no time limit. A court can correct a typo, miscalculation, or transcription mistake whenever it is brought to its attention, on its own or on a motion. This is not a way to challenge the substance of a decision; it only fixes how the decision was recorded.¹

The three-year window is hard. Filing one day late leaves the court no choice but to deny the motion on procedural grounds, no matter how strong the underlying claim. If you know about a problem with a judgment, do not wait to see whether the other side enforces it.

How to File the Motion

Start with a written motion that identifies the specific statutory ground you are relying on. Lay out the facts with enough detail that the judge can evaluate whether you have a viable basis for relief. Vague allegations will not survive.

A sworn affidavit should accompany the motion. It provides the factual foundation: what happened, when, and why the judgment should not stand. For a fraud claim, describe the fraudulent conduct specifically and explain how it affected the outcome. For a claim of defective service, attach any evidence showing you never received the lawsuit papers.

You must serve the motion on the opposing party. Georgia law requires reasonable notice to all parties. If ordinary motion service (such as mail to opposing counsel) is not available, the motion can be served by any method allowed for serving an original complaint, including personal service through a process server. File a certificate of service documenting how and when the opposing party was notified.¹

The court will set a hearing where both sides argue. You carry the burden of proving your grounds. The judge will not presume the original judgment was wrong.

Stopping Enforcement While the Motion Is Pending

Filing a motion to set aside does not automatically halt collection. A money-judgment creditor can pursue garnishment, bank levies, or property liens while your motion sits on the docket. For default judgments, enforcement can begin immediately after entry.²

To pause enforcement, ask the court for a stay. Under O.C.G.A. 9-11-62, a motion for new trial acts as an automatic supersedeas, though the court can require a bond. A motion to set aside does not carry that automatic stay, so file a separate request asking the court to halt enforcement while the motion is decided. The court has discretion to condition the stay on your posting a bond to protect the other party if the motion fails. If a garnishment is already hitting your bank account, request the stay at the same time you file the motion, not weeks later.²

Motion to Set Aside vs. Motion for New Trial

Georgia recognizes two direct attacks on a judgment, and picking the wrong one can get your filing denied on procedural grounds alone. A motion to set aside targets the problems above: jurisdiction, fraud, and defects on the record. A motion for new trial under O.C.G.A. 9-11-60(c) addresses an “intrinsic defect which does not appear upon the face of the record or pleadings,” which typically means errors that happened during trial itself, such as improper jury instructions or newly discovered evidence that could not have been found before trial. Both motions must be filed in the court that entered the original judgment. You cannot take either to a different court.¹

No Equity Workaround

Some states let you file an independent lawsuit in equity to set aside a judgment when other options have expired. Georgia does not. O.C.G.A. 9-11-60(e) prohibits the use of a complaint in equity to set aside a judgment. The methods in section 9-11-60 are your only options under state law, and you cannot get around the three-year deadline with a separate equitable action.¹

If the Court Denies Your Motion

Denial of a motion to set aside does not give you an automatic right to appeal. In Georgia, the denial is subject to discretionary appeal, meaning you must apply to the Court of Appeals for permission to hear the case. The application must be filed within 30 days of the trial court’s written order. Miss that window and the Court of Appeals loses jurisdiction entirely. Discretionary appeals are granted only when reversible error appears to exist or when a decision would establish useful precedent, so a clear record of the trial-court proceedings, including a transcript of the hearing on your motion, matters for the application.

Clearing a Vacated Judgment From Your Credit Report

A civil judgment can continue to damage your credit even after a court sets it aside, because credit bureaus do not automatically learn that a judgment has been vacated. Under federal law, once you dispute the accuracy of the information with a credit bureau and provide documentation, such as a certified copy of the order setting aside the judgment, the bureau must investigate and correct or delete inaccurate information within 30 days.³

Send the dispute in writing to each bureau that reports the judgment (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion) with a copy of the court order attached. If a bureau fails to update your file after receiving the dispute and the supporting documentation, you may have a claim under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. The record will not fix itself. Proactive follow-up is the only reliable way to clear a vacated judgment from your credit history.

1
Justia. Georgia Code 9-11-60 – Relief From Judgments
2
Justia. Georgia Code 9-11-62 – Stay of Proceedings to Enforce a Judgment
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 U.S. Code 1681i – Procedure in Case of Disputed Accuracy