Setting aside a default judgment in Texas: the thirty-day window, and what happens after it shuts

Texas courts don't keep control of their judgments for long. Rule 329b gives the trial court thirty days, measured from the day the judgment was signed, and after that the court's authority runs out on a schedule the rules set in advance.

Everything about undoing a default judgment turns on where you are in that schedule.

Day zero is the day the judgment was signed

Rule 306a(1) says so directly: the date the judgment or order is signed, as shown of record, determines when the periods start — for the court's plenary power, for a motion for new trial, for a motion to modify, for a motion to reinstate a case dismissed for want of prosecution, and for requests for findings of fact and conclusions of law.

Not the day it was rendered from the bench. Not the day anyone received notice. The day it was signed.

Rule 306a(2) directs judges, attorneys and clerks to make sure judgments are written, signed and dated. If the date of signing isn't recited in the judgment, it can be shown in the record by a certificate of the judge or otherwise — and the absence of a date in the record doesn't invalidate the judgment.

The thirty-day motion

Rule 329b(a): a motion for new trial, if filed, must be filed before or within thirty days after the judgment is signed.

Rule 320 is the rule that says what a new trial motion asks for. Its text is short — new trials may be granted and judgment set aside "for good cause, on motion or on the court's own motion on such terms as the court shall direct," and each motion must be in writing and signed by the party or the party's attorney.

"Good cause" is the whole standard the rules give. The detailed test Texas courts apply to default judgments in particular — what a defendant has to show about why they didn't answer, what defense they have, and whether a new trial would injure the plaintiff — comes from Texas case law, not from the rules of civil procedure. This site publishes the rules; it doesn't cover the case law that fills that gap. A court's self-help resources or a lawyer can.

Rule 329b(b) allows amended motions for new trial without leave of court, so long as they're filed before any earlier motion is overruled and within the same thirty days.

What the motion does to the court's power

Rule 329b(d): the trial court has plenary power to grant a new trial, or to vacate, modify, correct or reform the judgment, for thirty days after the judgment is signed — whether or not an appeal has been perfected.

Rule 329b(e): if a motion for new trial is timely filed by any party, that plenary power runs until thirty days after all such timely motions are overruled, by written signed order or by operation of law, whichever comes first.

Rule 329b(c): a motion for new trial or a motion to modify, correct or reform that isn't determined by written order signed within seventy-five days after the judgment was signed "shall be considered overruled by operation of law on expiration of that period."

Put those three together and the outer limit is arithmetic. A timely motion for new trial that the judge never rules on is overruled on day 75, and the court's plenary power ends thirty days later, on day 105. Nothing has to be filed on day 75 or day 105 for that to happen. It happens by itself.

Rule 329b(g) treats a motion to modify, correct or reform a judgment the same way: same deadlines as a motion for new trial, and it extends plenary power and the time for perfecting an appeal in the same manner. Overruling one kind of motion doesn't preclude filing the other.

Rule 329b(h) adds that if a judgment is modified, corrected or reformed in any respect, the time for appeal runs from the signing of the modified judgment.

When nobody told you — Rule 306a(4)

The thirty-day clock runs from signing whether or not the defendant learned about the judgment. Rule 239a is explicit that the clerk's failure to send notice doesn't affect the judgment's finality. Rule 306a(4) is the rule that keeps that from being a trap without a floor.

Its terms are narrow, and each one matters:

If 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 with respect to that party all the periods mentioned in paragraph (1) shall begin on the date that such party or his attorney received such notice or acquired actual knowledge of the signing, whichever occurred first, but in no event shall such periods begin more than ninety days after the original judgment or other appealable order was signed.

Three conditions. Twenty days — knowledge on day 19 leaves the original deadlines intact. Neither notice nor actual knowledge — hearing about it from anyone counts, not just the clerk's letter. And the ninety-day cap — the periods can never begin later than ninety days after signing, no matter when the party found out. A defendant who learns of a judgment on day 200 gets nothing from Rule 306a(4).

Rule 306a(5) makes it a matter of proof, not assertion. To establish that paragraph (4) applies, the adversely affected party must prove in the trial court, on sworn motion and notice, the date they or their attorney first received notice or acquired actual knowledge — and that this date was more than twenty days after the judgment was signed.

Rule 306a(3), the paragraph the whole thing hangs on, requires the clerk to send the judgment to the parties immediately when it's signed, and requires a money judgment to carry a bilingual notice telling individuals their money or property may be exempt, with a link to texaslawhelp.org/exempt-property.

Two more timing rules worth knowing

Corrected judgments. Rule 306a(6): when a corrected judgment is signed after plenary power expired, under Rule 316's nunc pro tunc procedure, the periods run from the corrected judgment — but only as to complaints that wouldn't have applied to the original.

Service by publication. Rule 306a(7) and Rule 329 work together. Rule 329 lets a defendant who was served by publication and never appeared in person or by an attorney of their own selection petition for a new trial "showing good cause, supported by affidavit, filed within two years after such judgment was signed." Two years, not thirty days. Execution isn't suspended unless the defendant posts a bond, and property already sold under the judgment before the process was suspended can't be recovered — the defendant gets a judgment for the proceeds instead.

After plenary power ends

Rule 329b(f) is the last word:

On expiration of the time within which the trial court has plenary power, a judgment cannot be set aside by the trial court except by bill of review for sufficient cause, filed within the time allowed by law.

A bill of review is a separate lawsuit, not a motion in the old case. The rules of civil procedure don't set out its elements; the time allowed and the showing required come from statute and case law.

Rule 329b(f) preserves two narrow exceptions. The court may at any time correct a clerical error in the record of a judgment and render judgment nunc pro tunc under Rule 316 — clerical, meaning the record doesn't match what the court actually did, not a judgment the court now thinks was wrong. And the court may sign an order declaring a previous judgment void because it was signed after plenary power had already expired.

Rule 316 requires notice under Rule 21a to the parties interested in the judgment before a clerical correction is made in open court, and provides that execution afterward conforms to the judgment as amended.

Evictions are different

None of this applies to a default judgment in a justice court eviction. Rule 510.18(l) says flatly that no motion for new trial may be filed, and Rule 510.19 gives a five-day appeal deadline instead. The eviction appeal guide covers that.

Where these rules live

• Rule 306a — Periods to Run from Signing of Judgment
• Rule 316 — Correction of Clerical Mistakes in Judgment Record
• Rule 320 — Motion and Action of Court Thereon
• Rule 329 — Motion for New Trial on Judgment Following Citation by Publication
• Rule 329b — Time for Filing Motions
• Rule 239a — Notice of Default Judgment

For forms and step-by-step help, the Texas courts point to TexasLawHelp.org. This page explains what the rules say. It isn't legal advice, and the standard a court applies to a motion for new trial after default comes from case law this site doesn't cover.