Responding to summary judgment in Minnesota: 14 days minimum, and cite the record
Minnesota procedure · Last verified August 17, 2026
Minnesota restyled its summary judgment rule on the federal model, and the result is a rule that cares much more about how you support a fact than about how long your brief is.
The response deadline is not in Rule 56 at all. It is in the General Rules of Practice, and Rule 56.02 points you there.
Two outer limits
Minn. R. Civ. P. 56.02:
Time to File a Motion Service and filing of the motion must comply with the requirements of Rule 115.03 of the General Rules of Practice for the District Courts, provided that in no event shall the motion be served less than 14 days before the time fixed for the hearing. Unless the court orders otherwise, a party may not file a motion for summary judgment more than 30 days after the close of all discovery.
Two constraints, at opposite ends:
| Constraint | Limit |
|---|---|
| Earliest before the hearing | at least 14 days before |
| Latest after discovery | no more than 30 days after the close of all discovery |
The 30-day back-end limit is unusual and easy to trip over. In many states a summary judgment motion can be filed at any point up to a scheduling-order cutoff; in Minnesota the window closes 30 days after discovery ends unless the court orders otherwise.
And the response timetable sits in General Rules of Practice 115.03, not in Rule 56 — so that is the rule to read for your actual deadline. It is outside this site's Minnesota corpus, which publishes the Rules of Civil Procedure.
What the motion must do
Minn. R. Civ. P. 56.01:
Motion for Summary Judgment or Partial Summary Judgment A party may move for summary judgment, identifying each claim or defense—or the part of each claim or defense—on which summary judgment is sought. The court shall grant summary judgment if the movant shows that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. The court shall state on the record or in a written decision the reasons for granting or denying the motion.
Three obligations, one of them on the court.
Identify each claim or defense — or the part of one. A motion that gestures at the case as a whole does not comply.
"Shall grant" if the standard is met.
The court must give reasons, on the record or in writing, either way. That is worth knowing on the losing side, because it produces something to work from.
Supporting and disputing facts
Minn. R. Civ. P. 56.03 is the operative provision for anyone responding:
(a) Supporting Factual Positions. A party asserting that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact must support the assertion by:
(1) citing to particular parts of materials in the record, including depositions, documents, electronically stored information, affidavits, stipulations (including those made for purposes of the motion only), admissions, interrogatory answers, or other materials; or
(2) showing that the materials cited do not establish the absence or presence of a genuine issue for trial, or that an adverse party cannot produce admissible evidence to support the fact.
"Citing to particular parts." Not to an exhibit, not to a deposition — to the parts. A record citation that sends the court to a 200-page transcript has not complied.
Route (2) is the one respondents underuse: you can win by showing the movant's own cited material does not establish what they say it does, without producing anything of your own. That is a different and often cheaper argument than assembling counter-evidence.
56.03(b) adds an evidentiary objection:
(b) Objection That a Fact Is Not Supported by Admissible Evidence. A party may object that the material cited to support or dispute a fact cannot be presented in a form that would be admissible in evidence.
Note the formulation — cannot be presented in a form that would be admissible. The material need not be in admissible form now; the question is whether it could be at trial.
If you cannot yet prove it
Minn. R. Civ. P. 56.04:
When Facts Are Unavailable to the Nonmovant If a nonmovant shows by affidavit that, for specified reasons, it cannot present facts essential to justify its opposition, the court may:
The trigger is an affidavit giving specified reasons. As everywhere, an assertion in the brief does not engage the rule — and "we need more discovery" without specifics is not specified reasons.
Note how this interacts with 56.02: because a motion cannot be filed more than 30 days after discovery closes, a genuine 56.04 application usually arises from a motion filed early, before discovery is complete.
What happens if you do not respond properly
Minn. R. Civ. P. 56.05:
Failing to Properly Support or Address a Fact If a party fails to properly support an assertion of fact or fails to properly address another party's assertion of fact as required by Rule 56.03, the court may:
The rule gives the court a menu rather than a single consequence — but the point stands: a response that does not engage fact by fact, with record citations, is treated as a failure to address the facts.
The court can act on its own
Minn. R. Civ. P. 56.06:
Judgment Independent of the Motion After giving notice and a reasonable time to respond, the court may:
Minnesota allows the court to grant judgment for the non-moving party, or on grounds nobody raised, after notice and an opportunity to respond. A weak motion is not a safe motion.
How Minnesota compares
| Minnesota | Colorado | Wisconsin | New Jersey | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Motion served | ≥14 days before the hearing | 91 days before trial | 20 days before the hearing | 28 days before the return date |
| Back-end limit | 30 days after discovery closes | — | 8 months from filing | — |
| Response deadline | Gen. R. Prac. 115.03 | with the responsive brief | 5 days before the hearing | 10 days before the return date |
| Record citation standard | particular parts | sworn or certified copies attached | copies attached | pages and paragraphs or lines |
| Win by attacking the movant's own citations | yes, 56.03(a)(2) | — | — | — |
| Court must give reasons | yes | — | — | findings under R. 1:7-4 |
| Judgment for the non-movant | yes, on notice | — | — | — |
A short checklist
- Check when discovery closed. A motion filed more than 30 days after that is out of time unless the court ordered otherwise.
- Find your response deadline in General Rules of Practice 115.03 — Rule 56 only sets the 14-day floor for the motion.
- Respond fact by fact, citing particular parts of the record — page and line, not the document.
- Consider attacking the movant's citations under 56.03(a)(2) before assembling your own evidence.
- Object where cited material could not be presented in admissible form.
- If you genuinely need discovery, file the 56.04 affidavit with specified reasons.
- Do not leave assertions unaddressed. Rule 56.05 treats that as a failure, with consequences.
- Remember the court can enter judgment independently after notice — including against the movant.
- Read the court's reasons. They are required, and they are the starting point for anything that follows.
Where these rules live
- Minn. R. Civ. P. 12 — Defenses and Objections
- Minn. R. Civ. P. 26 — General Provisions Governing Discovery
- Minn. R. Civ. P. 56 — Summary Judgment
- Minn. R. Civ. P. 60 — Relief from Judgment or Order
- Minn. R. Civ. P. 5 — Service and Filing of Pleadings and Other Documents
This page explains what the rules say. It isn't legal advice. General Rules of Practice 115.03, which sets the actual briefing timetable, sits outside this site's Minnesota corpus and should be read directly.