A Texas verdict is not a judgment, and the judgment is not final until the court signs it. Most of the deadlines that matter run from that signature. The first one arrives in thirty days, and a motion filed for the wrong reason does not extend it.
The date everything runs from
The jury answers questions. The court signs a judgment, sometimes the same week and sometimes months later after motions about what the answers mean. Until the judgment is signed, nothing is final and no appellate deadline has started. Ask the court coordinator for the proposed judgment and the signing date rather than assuming the date of the hearing. Once it is signed, the date on the judgment is the date from which every period is counted. The date the clerk mailed notice does not matter, with one narrow exception: a party that did not receive notice or actual knowledge of the judgment within twenty days of signing can, on a sworn motion, have the periods run from the date it learned of the judgment, but never from a date more than ninety days after signing.
A judgment that does not dispose of every party and every claim is not final, and the appellate deadlines have not begun. A judgment that clearly and unequivocally states that it disposes of all claims and all parties is treated as final even if it is wrong about that, so the words on the page matter.
The thirty-day deadlines
Three filings share the thirty-day mark. A motion for new trial asks the trial court to set the verdict aside; it is due thirty days after the judgment is signed. A motion to modify, correct, or reform the judgment is due the same day. The notice of appeal is due the same day unless one of those motions, or a request for findings of fact in a bench trial, has extended it. The request for findings has its own, shorter deadline: twenty days after the judgment is signed, with a notice of past-due findings if the court does not file them.
Some complaints exist only if raised in a motion for new trial. After a jury trial, a complaint that the evidence was factually insufficient, or that the damages were excessive or inadequate, must be in the motion or it is waived on appeal. That makes the motion a preservation device as much as a request for relief.
What a post-judgment motion buys you, and what it does not
A timely motion for new trial or to modify extends the appeal deadline to ninety days after the judgment is signed, for every party, not only the one that filed it. It also extends the trial court’s power over the judgment: instead of losing plenary power thirty days after signing, the court keeps it until thirty days after the motion is overruled. If the court does not rule, the motion is overruled by operation of law seventy-five days after the judgment is signed, and plenary power ends thirty days after that, one hundred five days from the signature. Within that window the court can grant a new trial, change the judgment, or vacate it.
A motion that asks for something other than a substantive change in the judgment extends nothing, whatever it is called. A motion filed after the thirty days have run does not move the appeal deadline either. The appellate rules list the motions that do, and the list is short.
If you missed it, and what the appeal can fix
A notice of appeal filed within fifteen days after the deadline can be saved by a motion for extension with a reasonable explanation, and a notice filed in that window is treated as an implied request for the extension. Beyond fifteen days there is no extension. A restricted appeal and a bill of review exist for narrow situations, and neither is a substitute for a timely notice.
The appeal is decided on the record from the trial court: the pleadings, the orders, the exhibits, and the transcript. The reviewing court asks whether the evidence was legally sufficient to support the findings, whether it was factually sufficient, and whether the charge or the rulings contained error that was preserved by a timely objection and that probably caused the wrong judgment. An error nobody objected to is usually gone. Post-judgment interest runs during the appeal, so the cost of losing grows with time. A winning party should, within twenty days, request findings in a bench case, record its abstract of judgment, and prepare for enforcement; collection continues during the appeal unless the judgment is superseded, which the collection explainer covers.
What we do
The firm tries cases and takes the appeal, which means the post-judgment motion is drafted with the appellate record in mind: which complaints must be in it, which findings must be requested, and which errors were preserved at the charge conference. For a losing party we calendar the thirty-day, seventy-five-day, ninety-day, and one-hundred-five-day marks on the day the judgment is signed. For a winning party we start enforcement the same day. The appellate practice page describes that work.
Questions we are asked
The jury came back yesterday. Has the clock started?
No. It starts when the judge signs the judgment. Ask for the proposed judgment and watch for the signing date.
Do we have to file a motion for new trial to appeal?
Not to appeal. But some complaints are waived without it, and it extends the deadline. Most losing parties should file one.
Can we settle after the verdict?
Yes, and the thirty-day window is often when it happens, because both sides know the number and the cost of the appeal. The deadlines do not pause for negotiations.
The judge has not signed anything yet. Can the other side collect?
No. There is no judgment to enforce until one is signed, and the thirty-day execution clock has not started either.
This page is general information about how post-judgment procedure is structured. It is not legal advice. Results depend on the facts of each matter. Prior results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome in any other matter.