Motions in a Court Case A motion is an oral or written request
made to the court for a ruling, or an order, on a particular
point. A motion can be made before, during, or after a trial.
It’s a common court procedure for deciding issues that come up
during the course of a lawsuit. - Motions can be made by anyone
named in a court case, on either side. - Motions cannot be made
by someone not named in the case. A witness, for instance, may
not make a motion. Some examples of motions are: - Before a
trial, you may want to ask that the trial itself be postponed
from one date to another. To do this you could file a motion
requesting that the schedule be changed. - During a trial, if
the judge rules that some part of a witness’s testimony is not
relevant, you could make a motion asking that that inadmissible
testimony be deleted from the court’s record. - After a trial,
you may want to have the amount of your court-ordered child
support changed. To do this you would file a motion asking the
judge to make the change.