How long you have to appeal depends on the court and the type of case, but the core numbers are simple: in federal court, you have 30 days after entry of a final judgment in a civil case and 14 days in a criminal case.1Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure Rule 4 – Appeal as of Right When Taken State courts set their own clocks, which commonly run anywhere from 10 to 90 days depending on the jurisdiction and case type. Miss the deadline and the appeal is almost always over before it starts, so the first task after deciding to appeal is pinning down the exact filing window that applies to your court and your case.
Federal Deadlines by Case Type
Federal appeal deadlines come from statute and the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure, and they apply the same way in every federal district and circuit.
In a standard civil case, you have 30 days from the entry of the final judgment or order.1Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure Rule 4 – Appeal as of Right When Taken That window doubles to 60 days when the United States, a federal agency, or a federal officer sued in an official capacity is a party.2GovInfo. 28 U.S. Code 2107 – Time for Appeal to Court of Appeals
In a criminal case, a defendant has just 14 days after entry of the judgment or the order being appealed.1Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure Rule 4 – Appeal as of Right When Taken The shorter window reflects the priority on resolving cases that involve someone’s liberty.
A few federal case types run on their own clocks:
- Bankruptcy appeals: 14 days from entry of the judgment, order, or decree. If one party files a timely appeal, any other party gets an extra 14 days from that filing or the original deadline, whichever is later.3Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure Rule 8002 – Time to File a Notice of Appeal
- Interlocutory appeals: when a district judge certifies an order for immediate appeal, the party must apply to the court of appeals within 10 days of the order’s entry.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 U.S. Code 1292 – Interlocutory Decisions
When the Clock Actually Starts
The deadline does not begin when a judge announces a ruling from the bench or when a jury returns a verdict. It starts on the date the final judgment is formally entered on the docket by the clerk. That is the date stamped on the signed order once it becomes part of the case record, and it can lag the oral ruling by days or weeks. Calculating from the hearing or trial date instead is one of the easiest ways to blow the deadline.
If you are waiting on a decision, check the docket regularly. The entry date is the only date that counts.
Post-Trial Motions That Reset the Clock
Certain post-trial motions filed in the district court pause the appeal clock and restart it when the court rules. In federal court, the tolling motions are listed in the rules and include a motion for judgment as a matter of law, a motion to amend the judgment, a motion for a new trial, and a motion for relief from the judgment if filed within the same window as a new-trial motion.1Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure Rule 4 – Appeal as of Right When Taken When one of these is timely filed, the appeal deadline runs from the date the court disposes of the last such motion, not from the original judgment.
The motion itself has to be timely, though. A motion to alter or amend a judgment must be filed within 28 days of entry. File it late and the appeal clock keeps running from the original judgment date as if the motion were never filed.
State Court Deadlines
Every state writes its own appellate rules, so there is no single answer for a case decided in state court. Civil appeal deadlines commonly fall between 30 and 90 days, though some states allow as few as 10 to 14 days for certain case types. Criminal appeals tend to run shorter than civil, and family law matters involving child custody often have their own expedited timelines.
Because the spread is so wide, the only reliable move is to look up the specific appellate rule for the court that issued your decision. The court’s self-help site or the clerk’s office can point you to the right rule. A deadline you remember from another state, or from a different case type in your own state, is not a safe guide.
Appeals from Federal Agency Decisions
Appeals from federal administrative agencies do not follow the standard appellate deadlines. Each agency’s governing statute sets its own window, and the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure simply require that a petition for review be filed “within the time prescribed by law.”5Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure Rule 15 – Review or Enforcement of an Agency Order A person appealing a final Social Security Administration decision, for example, has 60 days from receiving notice to file a civil action in federal district court.6Social Security Administration. SSR 77-28c Section 205(g) Judicial Review Other agencies have different windows. If your case comes out of an agency rather than a court, find the statute for that agency before anything else.
Can You Get More Time?
Extensions exist, but the window to ask for one is nearly as short as the original deadline. In federal court, a motion for an extension must be filed no later than 30 days after the original appeal deadline expires. Even when granted, the extension cannot exceed 30 days past the original deadline or 14 days after the order granting the extension, whichever is later.1Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure Rule 4 – Appeal as of Right When Taken
You must show either “excusable neglect” or “good cause.”2GovInfo. 28 U.S. Code 2107 – Time for Appeal to Court of Appeals Good cause generally applies to circumstances outside your control, like a medical emergency or a natural disaster. Excusable neglect is broader, and courts weigh the length of the delay, the reason for it, and whether the other side would be harmed. A heavy caseload or a forgotten date rarely qualifies. Courts treat these extensions as extraordinary relief, not a routine second chance.
The Prison Mailbox Rule
Incarcerated people have no way to walk documents to a clerk’s office. Under the federal prison mailbox rule, an inmate’s notice of appeal is considered filed on the date it is handed to prison authorities for mailing, not the date the court receives it. To use the rule, the inmate must be unrepresented by counsel at the time of filing, though some circuits have applied it more broadly. Keep a dated log or receipt showing when the document went to prison staff.
What Happens If You Miss the Deadline
A missed appeal deadline is almost always permanent. The U.S. Supreme Court has held that the time limit for filing a notice of appeal is jurisdictional, meaning it is what gives the appellate court the legal authority to hear your case. If the notice arrives even one day late, the court of appeals loses the power to review the decision and must dismiss the appeal.7Justia Law. Bowles v. Russell, 551 U.S. 205 The Court held that no judge-made exception, however sympathetic the circumstances, can override a statutory filing deadline. In that case, the appellant filed late because the district court itself had given him the wrong deadline, and the appeal was still dismissed.
There is one narrow safety valve. If you did not receive notice that the judgment had been entered within 21 days of its entry, the district court can reopen the appeal window for 14 days. The motion has to be filed within 180 days after the judgment was entered or within 14 days of finally receiving notice, whichever comes first, and the court must find that reopening would not prejudice the other side.1Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure Rule 4 – Appeal as of Right When Taken Outside that specific situation, a missed deadline means the lower court’s judgment stands as final, with no further review available.