motion to alter or amend the judgment
motion to alter or amend the judgment. A party’s request that the court correct a substantive error in the judgment, such as a manifest error of law or fact. • Under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, a motion to alter or amend the judgment must be filed within ten days after the judgment is entered. It should not ordinarily be used to correct clerical errors in a judgment. Those types of errors — that is, errors that result in the judgment not reflecting the court’s intention — may be brought in a motion for relief from the judgment, which does not have the ten-day deadline. A motion to alter or amend the judgment is usu. directed to substantive issues regarding the judgment, such as an intervening change in the law or newly discovered evidence that was not available at trial. Fed. R. Civ. P. 59(e). Cf. MOTION FOR RELIEF FROM THE JUDGMENT. [Cases: Federal Civil Procedure 2659; Judgment 294–333. C.J.S. Judgments §§ 275–304, 362, 370, 374.]
