Mechanism 32
Restarting the appellate clock when notice came late
What if you never got notice that judgment was signed in Texas?
The periods restart from the day you found out — but only if you found out more than twenty days after the judgment was signed, only up to a ninety-day outer limit, and only if you prove it in the trial court on a sworn motion. Miss any of those and the deadlines ran without you.
By John P. Henry · Tex. R. Civ. P. 306a(4), (5) · Reviewed 2026-08-02
The authority
[I]f within twenty days after the judgment or other appealable order is signed, a party adversely affected by it or his attorney has neither received the notice required by paragraph (3) of this rule nor acquired actual knowledge of the order, then … all the periods … shall begin on the date that such party or his attorney received such notice or acquired actual knowledge … but in no event shall such periods begin more than ninety days after the original judgment … was signed.Tex. R. Civ. P. 306a(4)
Tex. R. Civ. P. 306a(4), (5)
When it applies
The judgment signed at a hearing you were not told about, the notice sent to an old address, the dismissal that arrived after the plenary power had run. It is the predicate that makes a late motion for new trial or motion to reinstate timely.
How it is proved up
- File the sworn motion. Rule 306a(5) makes proving the date in the trial court a prerequisite, not a formality — without it the extension does not exist, and appellate courts say so.
- Prove two things: the date of first notice or actual knowledge, and that it was more than twenty days after the judgment was signed.
- Get a finding. The trial court’s determination of the date is what the appellate court will use.
- File the substantive motion at the same time — the motion for new trial, the motion to reinstate — rather than waiting for the 306a ruling.
- Count to ninety before anything else. If actual knowledge came on day ninety-one, this rule cannot help and the remedies are a restricted appeal or a bill of review.
What defeats it
- Notice received within twenty days, which gets no extension at all.
- The ninety-day cap, which is absolute.
- An unsworn motion, or no motion.
- Actual knowledge acquired informally — a phone call from opposing counsel starts the clock as surely as the clerk’s notice.
Where I have used it
The unglamorous predicate underneath several of the entries in this category. A motion to reinstate or for new trial filed on day fifty is timely or untimely depending entirely on whether this motion was filed and granted first.
Questions
What is a Rule 306a motion in Texas?
A sworn motion filed in the trial court proving the date on which a party or its attorney first received notice or acquired actual knowledge that the judgment was signed, in order to restart the post-judgment and appellate periods from that date.
What is the ninety-day limit in Rule 306a?
No matter how late notice was received, the periods may not begin more than ninety days after the original judgment or appealable order was signed. Rule 306a(4).
What if notice came within twenty days of the judgment?
There is no extension. Rule 306a(4) applies only where neither notice nor actual knowledge was obtained within twenty days after the judgment was signed.