What is an Emergency Motion?
An Emergency Motion is a motion brought without notice to the other side. It is also referred to as an ex parte motion. With this type of motion, the other party is not served with the documents before the motion is considered by a judge. A judge will only review the written material in order to decide whether to grant the order requested. The person bringing the motion does not attend in court at this stage and will not speak directly to a judge. For this reason, the quality of the written material is crucial, and must contain all the relevant information.
Although this motion does not get served on the other side before an order gets made, it is important to understand that the other side will eventually receive the material and have a chance to respond. If the motion is successful, the judge will order that the other side get served with the material and will set a return date for the motion within 14 days.
Learn more about our Emergency Motions Toolkit.
Training on emergency motions is also available for advocates. Learn more about our training options.