Federal Notice of Appeal Deadline: 30, 60 or 14 Days, What Tolls It, and What to Do If You Missed It

The federal notice of appeal deadline in a civil case is 30 days after entry of the judgment or order, or 60 days if the United States, one of its agencies, or one of its officers or employees sued over federal duties is a party. A criminal defendant has 14 days. Those numbers come from Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 4, and most of the trouble starts with what moves them.

This article is for general information and is not legal advice. For guidance on a specific case, consult a licensed attorney in your jurisdiction.

Every federal notice of appeal deadline in one table

All of these run from a docket event (entry, or another party's notice), not from the date you read the order. Counting follows FRAP 26(a), covered below.

The 60-day rule is triggered by who is a party, not by who is appealing, and it applies to everyone once any one of the four categories is present. Bankruptcy has its own extension rule in FRBP 8002(d), with carve-outs for certain orders such as stay relief and plan confirmation.

What moves the clock: the tolling motions

The 30 days does not always run from the judgment. FRAP 4(a)(4)(A) says that if a party files any of the listed motions in the district court, "and does so within the time allowed by those rules," the time to appeal "runs for all parties from the entry of the order disposing of the last such remaining motion."

The list:

1. A motion for judgment as a matter of law under Rule 50(b).
2. A motion to amend or make additional factual findings under Rule 52(b).
3. A motion for attorney's fees under Rule 54, if the district court extends the time to appeal under Rule 58.
4. A motion to alter or amend the judgment under Rule 59.
5. A motion for a new trial under Rule 59.
6. A motion for relief under Rule 60 "if the motion is filed within the time allowed for filing a motion under Rule 59."

Item six is the 2023 wording: it points to the Rule 59 window rather than reciting a number of days, so a guide that says "within 28 days" is working from the older text. Today the two come out the same, but quote the rule's own words.

The tolling only works for motions that are timely under the Civil Rules. A Rule 59(e) motion filed on day 29 of a 28-day window tolls nothing, and the appeal period keeps running from entry. The mechanics of those motions, and why courts treat a "motion for reconsideration" as one rule or another, are in our guide to motions for reconsideration.

A notice filed while a tolling motion is pending is not wasted. Under FRAP 4(a)(4)(B), it becomes effective when the order disposing of the last remaining motion is entered. But to challenge that order or an alteration of the judgment, you must file a new or amended notice.

The clock also starts only when the order is a judgment or order you can appeal. Whether an order is appealable at all is a separate question; see can you appeal the denial of a motion to dismiss. Under FRAP 4(a)(7)(A), a judgment is entered when it is entered in the civil docket; where Civil Rule 58(a) requires a separate document, it is entered only once the judgment is set out in that separate document or 150 days have run from the docket entry, whichever comes first.

Counting the days: FRAP 26(a), with a worked example

Time for a notice of appeal is computed under FRAP 26(a), not Civil Rule 6. The method is the same. For periods stated in days, you exclude the day of the triggering event, count every day including Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays, and include the last day, but if that day is a Saturday, Sunday or legal holiday, the period runs to the end of the next day that is not. For more on counting, see how to calculate court deadlines.

Worked timeline, civil case, no tolling motion:

Thanksgiving falls inside the count and changes nothing, because intermediate holidays count. Only an end-of-period weekend or holiday shifts the date. The "last day" for an electronic filing in district court ends at midnight in the court's time zone under FRAP 26(a)(4).

If you missed it: extension under 4(a)(5)

The district court may extend the time to file a notice of appeal if two things are true. You move "no later than 30 days after the time prescribed by this Rule 4(a) expires," and you show excusable neglect or good cause. The statute says the same thing in 28 U.S.C. § 2107(c).

There is a hard cap. An extension may not exceed 30 days after the prescribed time expired or 14 days after the order granting the extension, whichever is later.

Outside Rule 4, a court cannot help you. FRAP 26(b) forbids extending the time to file a notice of appeal "except as authorized in Rule 4." A stipulation between the parties does not move it, and neither does a clerk's assurance. The general rules for more time are in our guide to a motion for extension of time in federal court; the notice of appeal is the exception to most of them, so read Rule 4(a)(5) closely.

In a criminal case the equivalent is FRAP 4(b)(4): the district court may extend beyond the 14 days for excusable neglect or good cause, but not more than 30 days past the original deadline.

If you never got notice: reopening under 4(a)(6)

Reopening has three conditions, and the court must find all of them. The text, in summary:

• No notice within 21 days. The court finds the moving party was entitled to notice of entry under Civil Rule 77(d) and did not receive it from the clerk or any party within 21 days after entry.
• A timely motion. The motion is filed within 180 days after entry of the judgment or order, or within 14 days after the moving party receives notice under Rule 77(d), "whichever is earlier."
• No prejudice. The court finds that no party would be prejudiced.

If the court reopens, you get 14 days from the date of the order reopening. Read "whichever is earlier" twice. Receiving Rule 77(d) notice on day 100 does not give you until day 180; it gives you 14 days from that receipt. Only formal notice of entry served under Rule 77(d) counts, both for that 14-day clock and for the 21-day condition, so this route is unavailable to a lawyer who was served with notice of entry in time and simply miscalendared.

Jurisdictional or not: Bowles and Hamer

What a missed deadline costs depends on where the limit is written.

In Bowles v. Russell, 551 U.S. 205 (2007), a district court reopened the appeal period but gave the appellant more days than the statute allowed. He filed within the court's date, outside the statute's. The Supreme Court held that the time limit in § 2107 is jurisdictional, so the court of appeals had no power to hear the appeal, and the district court's error could not save it. The Court wrote that "the taking of an appeal within the prescribed time is 'mandatory and jurisdictional.'"

Ten years later, Hamer v. Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago, 583 U.S. 17 (2017), drew the line more carefully. The Court held that FRAP 4(a)(5)(C), the cap on how long an extension may run, is a mandatory claim-processing rule rather than a jurisdictional one. The reason is where it lives: a time limit in a statute is jurisdictional, and one found only in the rules is not. A claim-processing rule binds a court that is asked to enforce it, but an opponent can waive or forfeit it by not objecting.

The practical result:

Do not plan around a forfeiture. The 30-day period will not be waived, and a lawyer who files on day 31 is relying on nothing.

Incarcerated filers: the inmate mailbox rule

FRAP 4(c)(1) treats a notice filed by an inmate confined in an institution as timely if it is deposited in the institution's internal mail system on or before the last day. If the institution has a system designed for legal mail, the inmate must use it. Timely filing is shown by a declaration stating the date of deposit and that first-class postage is being prepaid, or by other evidence of timely deposit and prepaid postage. The court of appeals has discretion to permit a declaration filed later. Pro se litigants and the lawyers helping them should keep any receipt and write the declaration the day the notice goes into the mailbox.

Keeping the date from going wrong

The rules above are only as good as the calendar entry. A workable routine:

1. Calendar the docket entry date, not the date the order arrived.
2. Note the 30, 60 or 14-day period and the one real fork, whether a federal party is in the case.
3. If any tolling motion is filed, re-calendar from the order disposing of it, and calendar the original date too until you have confirmed the motion was timely.
4. Calendar the outer date for a 4(a)(5) motion as a backstop, not a plan.

CaseRead's matter workspace keeps deadlines and calendar entries with the matter, so the entry date and the appeal clock sit beside the order they come from. Its matter timeline lists dates it finds in the matter's documents and labels any deadline it derives as computed, so confirm the entry date on the docket and check the count against FRAP 26(a) yourself. For research such as your circuit's excusable-neglect cases under 4(a)(5), the research chat answers with citations to public law. Whether the appeal is worth taking, for example after a summary judgment ruling, is a question for after the notice is on file.

Frequently asked questions

How long do I have to file a notice of appeal in federal court?

In a civil case, 30 days after entry of the judgment or order, or 60 days if the United States, a federal agency, or a federal officer or employee sued over federal duties is a party. A criminal defendant has 14 days. A party responding to someone else's timely notice may get 14 days from that notice if it ends later.

Can a court extend the deadline to file a notice of appeal?

Only as FRAP 4 allows. The district court may extend a civil deadline for excusable neglect or good cause if you move within 30 days after it expires, and the extension cannot exceed 30 days from the original deadline or 14 days from the order, whichever is later. Otherwise Rule 26(b) bars extensions.

Does a motion for reconsideration stop the appeal clock?

Only if it is a listed motion filed on time. A Rule 59(e) motion filed within its window, or a Rule 60(b) motion filed within the Rule 59 window, restarts the clock from the order disposing of the last such motion. A late motion tolls nothing, and the original period keeps running.

What if I never received notice of the judgment?

FRAP 4(a)(6) lets the district court reopen the time to appeal for 14 days if you did not receive Rule 77(d) notice of entry within 21 days, you move within 180 days of entry or 14 days after you receive that notice (whichever is earlier), and no party would be prejudiced. All three conditions must be met.

Is the notice of appeal deadline jurisdictional?

The statutory civil deadline in 28 U.S.C. 2107 is jurisdictional under Bowles v. Russell, so a court cannot excuse a late notice. Limits found only in the rules, such as the cap on extensions in FRAP 4(a)(5)(C), are claim-processing rules under Hamer, which an opponent can forfeit by not raising them.

Before the notice, check the brief

The notice of appeal is a one-page document. The brief that follows is not, and the panel and its clerks will read every authority in it. If any of your draft came from a general-purpose AI tool, run it through the Hallucination Shield first. It is free, needs no signup, and checks up to 50 citations per run, flagging the ones it cannot verify.

This article is for general information and is not legal advice. For guidance on a specific case, consult a licensed attorney in your jurisdiction.