§ 25-1144.01.New trial; motion; when filed; filing before entry of judgment; treatment.

Timing drives everything with a motion for new trial, and § 25-1144.01 states the rule in two sentences. A motion for a new trial must be filed no later than ten days after the entry of the judgment. The clock starts at entry of judgment — not at the moment the jury announces its verdict, and not at the moment the judge announces a decision from the bench. Those two events, verdict and judgment, do not always happen the same day, and this section makes clear which one starts the ten-day count.

The second sentence handles the gap between a verdict or decision and the judgment that follows it. A party who moves quickly and files a new-trial motion after the verdict or decision but before judgment has been entered does not lose the motion for jumping the gun. The statute treats that early filing as if it had been filed after entry of judgment, on the day judgment is entered. In effect, an early motion is held in place and deemed timely rather than rejected as premature.

What this section does not do is create room to file late. It sets an outer limit — ten days after entry of judgment — and does not build in an extension for its own deadline. Anyone counting the ten days should also check § 25-1148, Nebraska’s general deadline-counting statute, for how to handle weekends and holidays that fall within that window.