When Is a California Notice of Appeal Due?

Not legal advice. Rules checked against the code on August 20, 2026. Verify every date yourself. Read the full disclaimer

Core CCP rules were checked against Westlaw (via CoCounsel legal research) on August 20, 2026. County local rules are paraphrased summaries; individual department standing orders are NOT included. Verify every date against the operative code sections and your court’s rules before relying on it. Using this site creates no attorney-client relationship.

The ordinary deadline is the earliest of three dates: 60 days after the superior court clerk serves a document entitled Notice of Entry or a filed-endorsed copy of the judgment, 60 days after a party serves or is served with one accompanied by proof of service, or 180 days after entry of judgment. Earliest, not latest, so a notice of entry served early shortens the window rather than extending it. Where nobody serves a notice of entry at all, the 180-day limit is the deadline.

A post-trial motion extends the deadline, and never shortens it

This is the part that catches people, and it is worth stating precisely. Rule 8.108 gives extensions for a valid motion for new trial, a motion to vacate, a motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict, and a motion to reconsider an appealable order. Each extension is expressed as a deadline running until the earliest of several events, typically 30 days after the order denying the motion is served, with a 180-day outside limit.

But rule 8.108(a) then says the rule operates only to extend the time otherwise prescribed by rule 8.104(a) and does not shorten it, and that where the ordinary time is longer, the ordinary time governs. So the real answer is the later of the two computations. A motion denied quickly produces an early rule 8.108 date, and that early date is irrelevant: your ordinary deadline still applies. Getting this backwards would tell you your appeal window had closed while it was still open, which is why the calculator shows both dates and names which one governs.

Two differences between the motions

A motion to vacate extends the appeal deadline only if it was served and filed within the time rule 8.104 allows for the appeal. The new trial and JNOV provisions carry no such requirement. And the new trial and JNOV extensions can run from denial by operation of law, where the court never ruled, while the vacate and reconsideration extensions are instead capped at 90 days from the date the motion was filed.

Reconsideration has one more wrinkle: rule 8.108(e) applies to a motion to reconsider an appealable order under Code of Civil Procedure section 1008(a), and its 180-day ceiling runs from entry of that order rather than from entry of a judgment.

Your dates

Enter the entry date and any notice dates, and this panel will show both the ordinary rule 8.104 deadline and the rule 8.108 extension, and which of the two governs.

What this calculator does not cover

Two rule 8.108 provisions are deliberately absent because they are low volume and easy to state wrongly: the additur and remittitur variants in rule 8.108(b)(2), whose clock runs from the new trial order rather than from the judgment, and the public entity provisions in rule 8.108(f) covering Government Code sections 962, 984 and 985. Criminal appeals are out of scope entirely; those run on rule 8.308 and on the constructive-filing case law.

The trial court deadlines that feed into all of this have their own pages: the new trial motion deadline, the JNOV deadline, and the reconsideration deadline. Each of those is jurisdictional in its own right, and the new trial and JNOV deadlines take no service extension at all.

FAQ

Is it 60 days or 180 days?

Whichever comes first. Rule of court 8.104(a)(1) sets the deadline at the earliest of 60 days after the clerk serves a Notice of Entry, 60 days after a party serves or is served with one, or 180 days after entry of judgment. If nobody ever serves a notice of entry, only the 180-day limit applies and that is your deadline.

Does a motion for new trial buy me more time to appeal?

Usually, but not always, and this is where the rule surprises people. Rule 8.108 extends the time, generally to 30 days after the order denying the motion is served. But rule 8.108(a) says it only ever extends and never shortens: if your ordinary deadline is later than the extension, the ordinary deadline governs. So a motion denied early does not pull your deadline forward.

Can I get an extension if I miss it?

No. Rule 8.104(b) provides that except under rule 8.66, no court may extend the time to file a notice of appeal, and that a late notice of appeal must be dismissed. The advisory committee comment records that this is declarative of case law holding the reviewing court has no jurisdiction to excuse a late filing.

Why does the calculator ask for the entry date instead of working it out?

Because rule 8.104(c) defines entry in a way software cannot observe. For an appealable order entered in the minutes the entry date is the date it went into the permanent minutes, unless the minute order directed that a written order be prepared, in which case it is the date the signed order was filed. A written order prepared under rule 3.1312 does not count as one so directed.

Does a motion to vacate always extend the deadline?

Only if it was filed in time. Rule 8.108(c) extends the appeal deadline only where the notice of intention or the motion to vacate was served and filed within the time rule 8.104 allows for the appeal itself. The new trial and JNOV provisions carry no equivalent requirement, which is an easy difference to miss.