A motion for reconsideration is a motion brought by a party to a case immediately following the entrance of a court order. The motion is filed to alter or void the order that the court just entered. The motion can only be filed on the court that issued the order.
In other words, you can’t go file a Motion for Reconsideration in the court of appeals if the order was entered by a commissioner in King County. A Motion for Reconsideration in Washington is governed under Civil Rule 59(a), the grounds* for which you can file the motion are:
(1) Irregularity in the proceedings of the court, jury or adverse
party, or any order of the court, or abuse of discretion, by which such
party was prevented from having a fair trial.
(2) Misconduct of prevailing party or jury; and whenever any one or
more of the jurors shall have been induced to assent to any general or
special verdict or to a finding on any question or questions submitted to
the jury by the court, other and different from his own conclusions, and
arrived at by a resort to the determination of chance or lot, such
misconduct may be proved by the affidavits of one or more of the jurors;
(3) Accident or surprise which ordinary prudence could not have guarded against;
(4) Newly discovered evidence, material for the party making the
application, which he could not with reasonable diligence have discovered
and produced at the trial;
(5) Damages so excessive or inadequate as unmistakably to indicate that
the verdict must have been the result of passion or prejudice;
(6) Error in the assessment of the amount of recovery whether too large
or too small, when the action is upon a contract, or for the injury or
detention of property;
(7) That there is no evidence or reasonable inference from the evidence
to justify the verdict or the decision, or that it is contrary to law;
(8) Error in law occurring at the trial and objected to at the time by
the party making the application; or
(9) That substantial justice has not been done.
Here’s the Rule in its entirety
A brief rundown of why you might file a motion for reconsideration based on reasons listed above, include, but are not limited to:
- * Someone lied or went crazy in the court room. It happens.
- * Someone lied and you can prove it without any doubt.
- * The dog ate my homework – This ground includes you got hit by a King County Metro Bus on your way to drop off your court documents and that’s why you didn’t have all your documents with you.
- * Newly discovered evidence. Something you found that you didn’t have before. Like a missing pay stub or something.
- * Not used in family law that often.
- * Typically this would be a miscalculation or scriber’s error.
- * Rarely used.
- * Rare, but it does happen.
- * The catch all – this is the one that an attorney uses when they have to punt and can’t find something more substantive under the first 8 grounds.
When do I file the motion?
You must file your King County Motion for Reconsideration within 10 days of the entrance of the order. This is calendar days, not business or court days.
How do I file the motion for reconsideration in Washington State?
You have to be careful to note which county you are practicing in when you file your motion for reconsideration. The rules for a motion for reconsideration in King County are different than the rules in Snohomish County.
In fact, King County has their own special Local Rule for Reconsideration motions. You will want to read the local rule before deciding both when to file and how you do it.
But, make sure you:
- * Use the proper note for motion docket for the judge who ruled in your case and issued the bad ruling you want reconsidered. WARNING: The Note for IC motion docket is not the same as the Note for Motion docket!
- * Be mindful of which COURTHOUSE you must file the motion for reconsideration under.
- * List all the parties on the note for motion docket.
- * Include two envelopes prestamped to mail back to the parties. Many attorneys miss this one.
- * The other side doesn’t respond unless the court asks them. They usually have 10 days to respond. If the court doesn’t ask the other side to respond, the party bringing the motion can expect it to be denied.
When do I go to court to have the motion for reconsideration in Washington heard by the judge?
Typically, you don’t. It’s usually done by what’s called “without oral argument”. Petitioners and Respondents in Seattle Divorce cases get introduced to the idea of a motion for reconsideration in Washington after an unsuccessful appearance on the Family Law Motions Calendar in Seattle King County Superior Court.
On rare occasions, commissioners in Seattle and Kent in King County have offered to the parties that they may bring a motion for reconsideration for a variety of reasons, mostly of which is has to do with proving if someone made a payment, actually took a required course, or did get back a clean drug test.
Commissioners in Snohomish County in Everett tend to be more generous when granting reviews through reconsideration than the commissioners in King County. It’s a time saving device for both sides when they do.
If a party has lost a motion and they think they shouldn’t have lost the motion, the first option is to file a motion for reconsideration. The immediate question in the Seattle Family Law Lawyer’s mind is whether they should just skip this motion for reconsideration and file a motion for revision instead.
This decision should be weighed carefully considering factors which include: the commissioner who ruled, the trial judge, the amount of time until trial, how good the evidence is, and a thousand other factors. Pro Se parties would be wise to pay a Seattle Family Law Attorney their hourly rate for an hour or two to bounce their strategy off them before deciding which motion to file.
* – Grounds means the reasons that the court can use to rule in your favor. Your reason must tie into one of the 9 grounds that are listed on this page. The grounds are subject to change by the Court.
