Rule 1.1004.New trial

Rule 1.1004 lets an aggrieved party move to vacate an adverse verdict, decision, or report — or part of it — and get a new trial, but only where one of nine listed causes materially affected the movant's substantial rights. A technical problem that made no real difference will not carry the motion.

The nine causes cover a wide range of trial problems: an irregularity in the proceedings of the court, jury, master, or prevailing party, or a court order or abuse of discretion that prevented a fair trial; misconduct of the jury or the prevailing party; accident or surprise that ordinary prudence could not have guarded against; excessive or inadequate damages that appear to have been influenced by passion or prejudice; an error in fixing the amount of recovery, too large or too small, in a contract or property-damage action; a verdict, report, or decision not sustained by sufficient evidence or contrary to law; newly discovered material evidence that could not, with reasonable diligence, have been discovered and produced at trial; errors of law in the proceedings or the court's own mistakes of fact; and any ground stated in Rule 1.1003, so long as the motion specifies the defect.

Rule 1.1005 requires the motion to be in writing, and lets three of these grounds — misconduct, accident or surprise, and newly discovered evidence — be proven or opposed with affidavits, since those grounds turn on facts outside the existing trial record. Rule 1.1007 sets the 15-day deadline for filing.