Motion Timelines / Deadlines

Motion Timelines/ Deadlines (Initial Motion and Responses)

Moving parties (the person who requested the motion hearing) must file and serve their motion and affidavit 21 days prior to the court hearing. (MN Rule 303.03(a)

Responding parties (the party responding to the motion) must file their responsive motion and affidavit either 14 days or 7 days prior to the court hearing. Whether the deadline is 14 days or 7 days depends on if there are “new issues” (MN Rule 303.01 (c) = 7 day response time;  MN Rule 303.03 (a)(2) = 14 day response time)

In Summary:

21 days = Initial motion deadline

14 day response time = New Issues ( MN Rule 303.03 (a)(2) defines “New Issues” as issues other than those raised in the initial motion. )

7 day response time = No New Issues

When we are responding to a motion, always talk to your attorney regarding whether the response will be due 14 days out or 7 days out. Oftentimes, this can’t be determined until receipt and review of moving parties’ motion.

Things to keep in mind when calculating specific deadlines:

• Because deadlines for motion hearings are established by counting backwards from the date of the hearing, if any deadline falls on a weekend or holiday, you must continue going backwards to get to a date that is acceptable to file/serve.
• If a party is pro-se, we have to add 3 days for mailing.
• Documents cannot be filed/served on holidays or weekends

Examples of how holiday/weekends could impact deadlines/service dates:

• If the hearing is set for October 30^th , we are filing the initial motion, and the other party is represented by an attorney, our documents would need to be efiled/eserved no later than October 9th
• If the hearing is set for October 30^th , we are filing the initial motion, and the other party is pro-se, our documents would still be due to the Court on October 9. HOWEVER, we must allow 3 additional days to mail the documents to the pro-se opposing party, so our motion and affidavit would need to be done and mailed by October 6th. (Make sure to include an affidavit of mailing with your court filing)
• If the hearing is set for January 15th, we are filing the initial motion, and the other party is represented by an attorney, our documents would need to be efiled/eserved no later than December 25th. BUT, that’s Christmas, so you’ll have to continue looking backwards and find the next business day. (For Example, in 2023, Dec 25th is a Monday, so going backwards, you can’t efile/eserve on Sunday the 24th, or Saturday the 23rd (weekends), so now you’re looking at Friday the 22nd as the due date to efile/eserve documents
• If the hearing is set for January 11th, we are filing a responsive motion with no new issues, and the other party is pro-se, our documents would be due to the Court January 4. HOWEVER, we must allow 3 additional days to mail the documents to the pro-se opposing attorney, so our motion and affidavit would need to be done and mailed on January 1st. BUT, that is a holiday, and you can’t mail/serve documents on holidays, so you’ll have to continue looking backwards and find the next business day. (For Example, in 2024, Jan 1 is a Monday, so going backwards, you can’t efile/eserve on Sunday the 31 or Saturday the 30 (weekends), so now you’re looking at Friday the 29th as the due date to mail the document to pro-se OPP. This is a HUGE difference from the “standard” deadline of January 4th to the correct deadline of December 29th, so it’s important to always be looking ahead at your deadlines.

How to word / setup tasks in MyCase

• Set up a task identifying the due date for our Motion and Affidavit Documents. Motions and Affidavits are always due to the Court 21 days prior to the hearing. Use the date calculator in MyCase to calculate and make sure to be aware of weekends and holidays. Set the actual task due date for a few weeks before so we have plenty of time to prepare.

Examples:

• If the hearing is set for October 30^th and the other party is represented by an attorney, our documents would be due to the Court on October 9th.

Task: “Our Motion / Affidavit (Due Oct 9)” (Task Due Date Sept 18)

• If the hearing is set for October 30^th and the other party is pro-se, our documents would still be due to the Court on October 9. HOWEVER, we must allow 3 additional days to mail the documents to the pro-se opposing party, so our motion and affidavit would need to be done and mailed by October 6th.

Task “Our Motion / Affidavit (Due Oct 6) OPP Pro-Se” (Task Due Date Sept 15)

• If a due date ever falls on a weekend or holiday, than the adjusted due date will be the business day prior to the weekend / holiday.