(1) Within 21 days after entry of judgment, a party may move to have the verdict and judgment set aside, and to have judgment entered in the moving party's favor. The motion may be joined with a motion for a new trial, or a new trial may be requested in the alternative.
(2) If a verdict was not returned, a party may move for judgment within 21 days after the jury is discharged.
(3) A motion to set aside or otherwise nullify a verdict or a motion for a new trial is deemed to include a motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict as an alternative.
(1) If a verdict was returned, the court may allow the judgment to stand or may reopen the judgment and either order a new trial or direct the entry of judgment as requested in the motion.
(2) If a verdict was not returned, the court may direct the entry of judgment as requested in the motion or order a new trial.
(3) In ruling on a motion under this rule, the court must give a concise statement of the reasons for the ruling, either in a signed order or opinion filed in the action, or on the record.
(C) Conditional Ruling on Motion for New Trial.
(1) If the motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict under subrule (A) is granted, the court shall also conditionally rule on any motion for a new trial, determining whether it should be granted if the judgment is vacated or reversed, and shall specify the grounds for granting or denying the motion for a new trial.
(2) A conditional ruling under this subrule has the following effects:
(a) If the motion for a new trial is conditionally granted, that ruling does not affect the finality of the judgment.
(b) If the motion for a new trial is conditionally granted and the judgment is reversed on appeal, the new trial proceeds unless the appellate court orders otherwise.
(c) If the motion for a new trial is conditionally denied, on appeal the appellee may assert error in that denial. If the judgment is reversed on appeal, subsequent proceedings are in accordance with the order of the appellate court.
(D) Motion for New Trial After Ruling. The party whose verdict has been set aside on a motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict may serve and file a motion for a new trial pursuant to MCR 2.611 within 14 days after entry of judgment. A party who fails to move for a new trial as provided in this subrule has waived the right to move for a new trial.
(E) Appeal After Denial of Motion.
(1) If the motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict is denied, the party who prevailed on that motion may, as appellee, assert grounds entitling that party to a new trial if the appellate court concludes that the trial court erred in denying the motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict.
(2) If the appellate court reverses the judgment, nothing in this rule precludes it from determining that the appellee is entitled to a new trial, or from directing the trial court to determine whether a new trial should be granted.
Michigan tracks the orders that adopt and amend its Court Rules in a separate administrative record rather than printing a history note beneath each rule in the compiled rules text reproduced here. The text above is verified current through the source’s own May 1, 2026 update; for the full order-by-order history of this rule, see the Michigan Supreme Court’s rules and orders page.
A motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict asks the court to override the jury and enter judgment for the losing party as a matter of law, and it has to be filed within 21 days after judgment is entered, or within 21 days after the jury is discharged if it never reached a verdict at all. The motion can be joined with a motion for a new trial, or a new trial can be requested as an alternative, and a motion aimed at nullifying a verdict is automatically read to include a JNOV request as a backup. Ruling on it, the court either lets the judgment stand or reopens it and orders a new trial or the judgment the motion asked for, with a concise statement of reasons required either way.
If the court grants the JNOV motion, it doesn't get to skip the new-trial question: it has to conditionally rule on any paired new-trial motion too, spelling out whether a new trial would be granted if the JNOV ruling were later vacated or reversed, which matters a great deal on appeal — a conditional grant doesn't affect the judgment's finality, but triggers a new trial automatically if the judgment is reversed (unless the appellate court says otherwise), while a conditional denial lets the appellee argue on appeal that the new trial should have been granted anyway. A party whose verdict was set aside on a JNOV motion can still move for a new trial under Rule 2.611 within 14 days after judgment, but loses that right if the deadline passes. And if the JNOV motion itself is denied, the party who won it can still argue as appellee that a new trial should have been granted, preserving that issue for appeal even without filing a separate motion.