What Is Motion Hour (Legal Definition And How It Works)

What does Motion Hour mean on court docket?

How do you legally define it?

What are the important elements you should know!

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What is Motion Hour 

Motion Hour is a term used to refer to the moment when court motions are called for hearing before a judge.

Motions are legal demands filed by parties to a lawsuit looking for the court to rule on a particular issue.

To present a motion to the court, the moving party must prepare a motion, serve a copy to the opposing party and file the original with the court clerk.

Once the court clerk receives a motion filed, they will place the motion on the court calendar.

Every court will manage and define its own motion hour.

For example, family cases can be heard on Mondays, commercial matters on Tuesday, criminal matters on Wednesday, and so on.

On the day the motion is set on the calendar, a motion hour is defined setting a specific time and place where the motion will be called before the court.

At that time, if anyone has any objections to raise against the hearing of the motion, they’ll present their arguments.

Typically, the party objecting is the other party in the lawsuit (non-moving party).

Motion Hour Definition

What is the motion hour legal definition?

A Motion Hour is a term used to refer to the day, time, and place where a motion will be called by the court for it to be heard.

Every court will have a set of rules and mechanics in place to hear all the motions that are routinely filed before it by litigants.

The motion hour mechanism is a procedure adopted by the court allowing the streamlined hearing of motions and the orderly progress of cases.

Motion Hour on Court Docket

How is a case docketed for motion hour?

For a motion to be put on the court docket to be heard, a party will generally need to observe the following steps:

• Draft motion
• Serve copy of motion to the opposing party or opposing counsel
• File the original motion and proof of service with the court clerk

Once that is done, the court clerk will examine the nature of the motion and calendar it on the next applicable motion hour.

For example, a family court has a motion hour for May 20, the party who wants his or her motion to be heard on that day will need to file the motion with the court clerk before the court established deadline. 

If the court’s deadline to file a motion is May 15th, then all motions filed before May 15 will be on the court docket for May 20.

Otherwise, they will be scheduled for the next motion hour.

Motion Hour Hearing

What is a motion hour hearing?

A motion hour hearing is a short argument presented by the parties allowing the court to decide whether they can hear the case on the same day or schedule a separate hearing.

Here is what you can expect to happen at the motion hour hearing:

• The court may schedule a hearing on another day
• The court may grant your motion
• The court may reject your motion
• The court may take another action as it deems necessary 

For a case to be heard, the court will verify that:

• All relevant parties have been served and the notification rules have been observed
• The parties point of contention remains outstanding and cannot be mutually resolved between them 
• The parties are present for the motion to be heard by a judge

Motion Hour examples

For example, based on the Kentucky Court Rules (Kentucky Court Rule 1 Motion days and motions) relating to the 39th Judicial Circuit for the Breathitt, Powell, and Wolfe Circuit Courts, the civil motion hour begins at 9:00 a.m. and the criminal motion hour begins at 10:00 a.m. after the civil motion hour has finished.

Another example is the Kenton Court Motion Hour.

The Circuit Civil Motion Hour with the First Division judge is the first Monday of the month at 9:00 a.m. where motions are called in numerical order.

Motion Hour Court Rules

Every court will establish its own rules governing motion hour procedures.

For example, here are the rules established by the 55th Judicial Circuit – Bullitt Circuit Court (Rule BCR 200 Motion Practice):

• Rule 200.10 Motion Hour Time states that the Civil Motion Hour is on Monday at 9:00 a.m. and the Criminal Motion Hour is on the same day at 10:00 a.m.
• Rule 200.20 Motion Hour Time for “special circumstances” such as for cases temporary restraining orders or matters involving an emergency 
• Rule 200.30 Motion Hour Procedure indicates that all motions must be filed before 4:00 p.m. on the Wednesday prior to the Monday on which the Motion is scheduled to be heard
• Rule 200.40 Motion Hour Pleadings – Form states that notices must be on the front page of each motion 
• Rule 200.50 Motion Hour Pleadings dealing with Motions to dismiss, for judgment on the pleadings and for summary judgment 
• Rule 200.60 Motions for default judgment 
• Rule 200.70 relating to the filing of a discovery response 
• Rule 200.80 relating to the disposition of evidence 

Takeaways 

So what is the meaning of Motion Hour?

How does the court docket system work?

Let’s look at a summary of our findings.

Motion Hour:

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