Fla. R. App. P. 9.020: What Rendition Means and When Your Appeal Clock Starts

Every appeal from a Miami-Dade County trial court begins with the same question: when was the order rendered? Rule 9.110(b) of the Florida Rules of Appellate Procedure gives you 30 days from rendition to file a notice of appeal from a final order. Rule 9.130(b) gives you the same 30 days for an appealable nonfinal order. Neither rule defines the word. That job belongs to Rule 9.020(h), and most missed appeal deadlines trace back to a misunderstanding of it.

This page explains what rendition means under Rule 9.020(h), which post-judgment motions delay it, which motions do not, and how to count the days in an appeal from the Eleventh Judicial Circuit to the Third District Court of Appeal.

The Definition in Rule 9.020(h)

Rule 9.020(h) states that an order is rendered "when a signed, written order is filed with the clerk of the lower tribunal." Three separate requirements sit inside that sentence, and each one has to be satisfied before the clock starts.

• Signed: The judge must have signed the order. A proposed order sitting in the judge's queue, or a draft circulated to counsel for comment, is not rendered.
• Written: An oral ruling from the bench is not rendition. A judge in a Miami courtroom can announce that summary judgment is granted, and nothing happens for appellate purposes until a written order exists.
• Filed with the clerk: The signed, written order must be filed with the Miami-Dade Clerk of the Court and Comptroller. The file stamp, not the signature line, is the date that controls.

Several dates that feel significant carry no weight under the rule. The date of the hearing does not matter. The date the judge signed the order does not matter if the clerk filed it later. The date the clerk mailed a conformed copy, the date the e-filing portal sent a notification, and the date you or your lawyer first read the order are all irrelevant. Only the filing date counts.

Why the Gap Between Signing and Filing Matters

In most Miami-Dade civil divisions, orders are signed electronically and docketed the same day. But gaps still occur. A judge may sign an order at the end of a hearing and hand it to a judicial assistant, and the order may not reach the clerk's docket for two or three days. In those cases, the later filing date gives you a little more time. The danger runs in the other direction when a lawyer calendars from the signature date shown on the order and files the notice a day or two late.

Example 1: A final judgment in a breach of contract case is signed on March 2 and filed with the clerk on March 4. Rendition occurs March 4. Under Rule 9.110(b), the notice of appeal is due 30 days later, on April 3. A lawyer who counted from March 2 would calendar April 1, which is safe. A lawyer who assumed the order was filed the day it was received by mail, say March 9, would calendar April 8 and lose the appeal.

When the file stamp and the signature date differ, calendar from the file stamp. If you cannot tell from the copy in hand, pull the docket entry from the Miami-Dade Clerk's online records and confirm the filing date before you calculate anything. For a fuller treatment of the 30-day period itself, see our page on the Rule 9.110 appeal deadline.

Motions That Toll Rendition

Rule 9.020(h)(1) lists the motions that, if "authorized and timely filed," suspend rendition of a final order until the trial court disposes of them. The list includes:

• a motion for new trial or rehearing;
• a motion for certification;
• a motion to alter or amend;
• a motion for judgment in accordance with a prior motion for directed verdict;
• a motion for arrest of judgment;
• a motion to challenge the verdict;
• a motion to correct a sentence or order of probation under Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.800(b)(1);
• a motion to withdraw a plea after sentencing under Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.170(l); and
• a motion to correct an error in a written order of judgment and sentence.

When one of these motions is pending, the final order is not deemed rendered until a signed, written order disposing of the last such motion is filed with the clerk. The 30 days then run from that second filing date.

The two qualifiers in the rule, "authorized" and "timely," do the work. In a civil case, the governing rule for rehearing and new trial motions is Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.530. Rule 1.530(b) requires the motion to be served no later than 15 days after the return of the verdict in a jury action, or 15 days after the date of filing of the judgment in a nonjury action. A motion served on day 16 is untimely and tolls nothing. Our page on Rule 1.530 motions and the appeal deadline covers the timing and content requirements in detail.

Example 2: A final judgment is filed with the clerk on March 4. The losing party serves a motion for rehearing on March 17, which is 13 days later and therefore timely under Rule 1.530(b). The judge hears the motion and signs an order denying it on April 20. The clerk files that order on April 22. The final judgment is rendered on April 22, and the notice of appeal is due May 22.

Note what did not happen in Example 2. The oral denial at the hearing did not restart the clock. The signature on April 20 did not restart the clock. Only the April 22 filing did.

Motions That Do Not Toll Rendition

Several common motions look like they should delay the appeal deadline and do not. Filing one of them without also filing a protective notice of appeal is one of the most frequent ways a Miami litigant loses appellate rights.

Untimely rehearing motions. As explained above, a motion served after the 15-day window in Rule 1.530(b) does not toll. The trial court may still consider it, and may even grant it, but the appeal deadline continues to run from the original rendition date.

Example 3: Using the same March 4 judgment, the losing party serves a motion for rehearing on March 25, which is 21 days after filing. The motion is untimely. Rendition remains March 4, and the notice of appeal is still due April 3. If the party waits for a ruling on the rehearing motion before appealing, the appeal will be dismissed as untimely regardless of when the trial court rules.

Rehearing motions directed to nonfinal orders. Rule 1.530 authorizes rehearing of final judgments. A motion for rehearing of a nonfinal order, such as an order granting a temporary injunction or an order determining venue, is not an authorized motion and does not toll rendition. The 30 days under Rule 9.130(b) run from the filing of the nonfinal order itself. See our page on appealing nonfinal orders under Rule 9.130 for the categories of orders that can be appealed before final judgment.

Example 4: An order granting a temporary injunction is filed on June 1. The enjoined party files a motion for rehearing on June 5. The motion has no tolling effect. The notice of appeal is due July 1. A party who waits until the trial court denies rehearing on July 15 has lost the right to appeal the injunction.

Successive motions. A second motion for rehearing directed to the same judgment, or a motion for rehearing of an order denying rehearing, does not toll rendition. The clock started when the first rehearing order was filed.

Motions for relief from judgment under Rule 1.540. A Rule 1.540(b) motion alleging mistake, newly discovered evidence, or fraud is not on the Rule 9.020(h)(1) list. It does not delay the deadline to appeal the underlying judgment. An order granting or denying a Rule 1.540 motion is separately appealable, but that is a different appeal with its own 30-day period.

Motions for attorney's fees and costs. A pending motion to tax costs or to determine entitlement to fees does not toll rendition of the final judgment on the merits. The merits appeal must be filed within 30 days of the judgment, and any fee or cost order is appealed separately once it is rendered.

Filing the Notice Before the Motion Is Decided

Rule 9.020(h)(3) addresses the situation in which a timely tolling motion is pending and a party files a notice of appeal anyway. Under the current rule, the appeal is held in abeyance until a signed, written order disposing of the last such motion is filed. The notice is not a nullity, and the pending motion is not treated as abandoned. This is a change from the version of the rule in effect before 2019, which deemed the appealing party's own pending motions abandoned when the notice was filed. Lawyers who learned the rule under the older version sometimes still hesitate to file a protective notice. Under the current text, the protective notice is safe and the motion survives.

A protective notice is the correct response whenever there is any doubt about whether a pending motion is authorized or timely. The cost is the filing fee. The alternative risk is dismissal.

Counting the 30 Days

Once you have the rendition date, Florida Rule of General Practice and Judicial Administration 2.514 governs the computation. The day of rendition is excluded. Every calendar day after it is counted, including weekends and holidays. If the last day falls on a Saturday, Sunday, or legal holiday, the period runs until the end of the next day that is not one of those. The 30-day period is measured from filing, not from service, so the additional days that Rule 2.514(b) adds for service by mail do not apply.

The notice of appeal must be filed with the clerk of the lower tribunal, meaning the Miami-Dade Clerk, together with the filing fee. Rule 9.110(b) describes the timely filing of the notice as the act that invokes the jurisdiction of the appellate court. The Third District Court of Appeal has no power to extend the deadline, and no showing of excusable neglect will save a late notice.

Rendition in Criminal Cases

The same definition applies in criminal appeals from the Eleventh Judicial Circuit. A judgment and sentence is rendered when the signed, written judgment is filed with the clerk. A timely motion under Rule 3.800(b)(1) to correct a sentencing error, filed before the notice of appeal, tolls rendition until the trial court rules or the motion is deemed denied by the passage of time under that rule. A motion to withdraw a plea under Rule 3.170(l), filed within 30 days after rendition of the sentence, has the same effect. Motions for postconviction relief under Rule 3.850 are not on the list and do not toll the direct appeal deadline.

What to Do When the Rendition Date Is Unclear

If you are holding an order and cannot tell when it was filed, take the following steps in order.

1. Pull the docket from the Miami-Dade Clerk's records and identify the filing date of the order, not the signing date.
2. Identify every post-judgment motion on the docket, note the date each was served, and determine whether each is on the Rule 9.020(h)(1) list and was served within the Rule 1.530(b) window.
3. If any question remains about whether a motion tolled rendition, calendar the deadline from the earliest possible rendition date and file a protective notice of appeal by that date.
4. Once the notice is filed, address enforcement of the judgment. Filing a notice of appeal does not stop collection. A stay requires a bond or a court order under Rule 9.310, which we cover on our page about stays pending appeal and supersedeas bonds.

Rendition is a technical rule with unforgiving consequences. The Third District dismisses untimely appeals without reaching the merits, and no motion in the trial court can revive the deadline once it passes. Getting the date right is the first task in any Miami appeal, and it has to be done before anything else.

You can contact the Law Offices of Albert Goodwin by phone at 786-522-1411 or by email at [email protected].