2-1202.Reserved ruling on motion for directed verdict - Post-trial motions in jury cases.

Before a case reaches the jury, a party can move for a directed verdict at the close of the evidence. The court can grant it, deny it, or reserve its ruling and send the case to the jury anyway. Denying or reserving the motion doesn't kill it forever, but it does waive it unless the party renews the request in a post-trial motion.

After trial, everything a party might have once sought through separate motions -- judgment notwithstanding the verdict, arrest of judgment, or a new trial -- now has to go into a single post-trial motion. That motion must spell out every ground with particularity and state exactly what relief it wants. Relief can include entry of judgment outright, even without an earlier directed-verdict motion, if the evidence would have required the court to direct a verdict. A party can also ask for relief in the alternative, such as a new trial if the request for judgment is denied.

The motion is due within 30 days of the judgment or the jury's discharge (if it never reached a verdict), or within any extension the court allows inside that window. A party who ends up with judgment entered against them because of someone else's post-trial motion gets that same 30 days to file their own. A timely motion automatically stays enforcement of the judgment, and skipping a request for a new trial in the motion waives that right later, unless the jury failed to reach a verdict at all.

Finally, the trial court has to rule on every form of relief the motion seeks. Even where one ruling makes other requested relief unnecessary for now, the court still has to rule on it conditionally, so that ruling springs to life automatically if an appeals court reverses or vacates the main ruling.