A ruling that is made against your desired outcome is hard to accept, especially when the reasoning does not seem right. Sometimes that impression fades as the decision settles in. Sometimes it does not, because the court made a mistake. Judges work through crowded calls, complicated finances, and imperfect records, and errors happen. Illinois law accounts for that, and it gives you a defined, time-limited way to raise an issue for the court to reconsider.
A motion to reconsider asks the judge who made the ruling to take a second look. In Illinois, you often only have 30 days from the entry of the order to file a motion to reconsider the court’s order. Courts grant them for three reasons only. The first is that evidence now exists that you could not have discovered earlier. The second is a change in the law. The third is a mistake in applying the law. Disagreement with the outcome is not on the list. This article explains how the motion works and when it is worth filing. It also covers what remains possible once the window has closed.
Key Takeaways
- The 30-day clock starts when the order is entered (with some limited exceptions), not when you decide you disagree with it.
- Judges reconsider for three reasons: newly discovered evidence, a change in the law, or a mistake in applying the law.
- Not liking the outcome is not grounds to ask the Court to reconsider a ruling. A motion built on disagreement alone usually fails and can cost you credibility with the judge.
- You get one chance at this motion, so it needs to be complete and right the first time.
- Filing on time also protects your ability to appeal afterward.
What Is a Motion to Reconsider?
A motion to reconsider is a written request asking the judge to review and change their own ruling. It stays in front of the same judge. No higher court is involved, no new case is opened, and no trial is redone. That makes it faster and less expensive than an appeal. It is often the first tool we consider utilizing when a ruling appears to rest on a mistake.
The purpose is narrow, and worth stating plainly. A Motion to Reconsider is not a weapon to be used to change the Court’s mind. It is a tool for the rare instances where new evidence comes to light, the law changes, or the Court has made a mistake.
A Child Support Case Where the Numbers Did Not Add Up
The best way to understand the motion is to watch it work.
I worked on a child support case where the parties were contesting the amount of child support. Each side ran its own calculations from the paying parent’s income and his claimed business expenses. The main issue before the Court was whether the other party could deduct all of his expenses, or only some. Every deduction lowered his income on paper, and with it, the support our client would receive. The IRS income guidelines for deductible expenses are not the same as what family courts utilize in Illinois to calculate support.
When the Court issued its ruling, the child support award was much less than both parties’ guideline numbers. This led me to believe the Court had made an error in calculating the child support. That raises an interesting question: is there anything a party can do if it appears the Court has made a mistake? The answer is yes. In this case, I filed a Motion to Reconsider that alleged the Court made a mistake and explained why. It asked the Court to award support pursuant to our calculations.
The Court reviewed its notes and determined it had made a mistake in calculating the support. It granted the motion and entered support at the correct number. The correction took one motion, filed inside the window, without an appeal or a new trial.
What Are the Three Grounds for Filing a Motion to Reconsider?
The deadline comes from Section 2-1203 of the Illinois Code of Civil Procedure (735 ILCS 5/2-1203). A party may file a motion to reconsider within thirty days after an order is entered. The statute sets the deadline. Illinois case law limits Motions to Reconsider to a few distinct situations. Disliking the outcome is not one of them.
1. Newly Discovered Evidence
The evidence must have existed at the time of the hearing. You must also have been unable to find it earlier despite reasonable effort. A hidden account that surfaces after the ruling can qualify. A document that sat in your own records the whole time usually does not. If you could have found it before the hearing and did not, the Court can deny the motion.
2. A Change in the Law
If the law changes within the window, you can ask the court to apply it as it now stands. In practice this means a new appellate decision or an amended statute that bears directly on your issue. It is the rarest of the three grounds, and when it applies, timing matters.
3. An Error in Applying the Law
This is the filing basis that most motions rest on, and it is the one that decided the child support case above. The argument is not that the judge weighed the evidence incorrectly. It is that the ruling applied the wrong standard or missed a controlling requirement. In the case above, it produced a number the guidelines cannot support. The motion has to show the error, not just assert it.
What Goes Into the Motion?
A motion to reconsider is short, and every line is important. A complete motion to reconsider covers four things:
- The order you are asking the court to revisit, identified precisely;
- The filing basis it rests on, named as one of the three that the court accepts;
- The error itself, shown rather than asserted, with new evidence attached and an explanation of why it could not have been found sooner (as applicable); and
- The specific request: what the corrected ruling should say.
In the child support case above, that last part meant our calculations, attached and explained.
How Long Do You Have to File a Motion to Reconsider in Illinois?
The window is 30 days from the day the final judgment or order is entered, in most situations. The court can allow more time, but only if you ask before the original 30 days run out. Miss the window and the motion is no longer available, no matter how strong the argument would have been.
These rules govern final orders. Temporary orders in an ongoing case work differently. They may be revisited within the case as it proceeds, not necessarily attacked by a post-judgment motion.
One more imbalance is worth knowing about: the filing deadline binds you, and no matching deadline binds the judge. Some motions are decided the day they are argued, and others wait weeks while the case continues around them.
Motion to Reconsider vs. Appeal: Which One Fits?
The two tools resolve different problems. A motion to reconsider says the judge who ruled can fix this, and it asks that judge directly. An appeal says a higher court needs to review this. It moves the dispute to a three-justice panel, on a written record, on a longer timeline, at a higher cost. When the problem is a specific, demonstrable error, the motion is usually the faster path. When the dispute is about how the judge exercised judgment, an appeal is the tool built for it.
The two also work in sequence. A well-drafted motion gives the judge the chance to correct the record. If it is denied, it sharpens the exact issue for challenging the family court order on appeal.
What Happens After You File?
The motion is filed with the same judge, and the other side gets the chance to respond in writing. The court then rules on the pleadings or hears arguments first. If the motion is granted, the ruling changes, as it did in the support case above. If it is denied, the order stands, and the window to appeal opens from the denial.
The underlying order generally remains in effect while the motion is pending. Support that was ordered continues to accrue and must be paid unless the court directs otherwise.
What If the 30 Days Have Already Passed?
The motion to reconsider is gone, but the case may not be over. Illinois allows a petition for relief from judgment for up to two years after the ruling. It is the same narrow tool used for reopening a divorce settlement. The bar is high; it is the exception, not the safety net. And for the orders families live with day to day, a different door stays open. However, child support can be modified going forward when circumstances substantially change, and parenting time follows a similar standard.
Act Within the 30-Day Window
A motion to reconsider is the fastest, least expensive way to fix a real mistake in an Illinois family law ruling. It generally must be filed within 30 days and rest on one of three grounds. If a recent ruling does not add up, contact the family law attorneys at Anderson Boback & Marshall. We can evaluate whether your case presents one of the three bases to file a motion to reconsider and, when it does, file within the window.
Motion to Reconsider in Illinois: Frequently Asked Questions
How long does a judge have to rule on a motion to reconsider in Illinois?
No rule sets a deadline for the judge. Some motions to reconsider are decided the day they are argued, and others wait weeks while the judge thinks it over. The 30-day deadline binds the person filing, not the court ruling on it.
Can a judge change their own ruling after 30 days have passed?
Generally no. Once 30 days pass with no motion on file, an Illinois judge loses the authority to change a final order. A narrow form of relief can reach back as far as two years, and it is rarely granted. Orders that are modifiable by nature, such as child support and parenting time, can still be changed going forward.
Does filing a motion to reconsider stop the order from taking effect?
Generally no. The order stays in force while the motion is pending, and support obligations continue to accrue and must be paid. If complying would cause serious harm, your attorney can ask the court to pause enforcement, and the court decides.
Can I file a second motion to reconsider if the first one is denied?
No. Illinois allows one post-judgment motion directed at a judgment, and if it is denied the next step is an appeal, with the appeal deadline running from the denial. That is one reason to make the motion complete and precise the first time.
How often are motions to reconsider granted in Illinois?
No published grant rate exists, and any number would be a guess. What is certain: Illinois judges grant these motions when they show one of the three recognized bases for filing them, and deny them when they read as simply a disagreement with the ruling. The strongest motions are narrow, specific, and built on the record, like the calculation error in the case above.
What is the difference between a motion to reconsider and a motion to vacate?
A motion to reconsider asks the judge to change a ruling made after both sides were heard. A motion to vacate asks the court to undo an order entered without both sides being heard, most often a default divorce judgment entered when one spouse never responded to the case. Illinois treats the two differently, with different standards and deadlines. The right label depends on how the order was entered.
