When may a Florida party seek relief from a final judgment?

Identify the final judgment, decree, order or proceeding and actual entry or taking.

Classify the proposed ground under the five listed categories.

Preserve facts needed to establish reasonable time and any separate one-year ceiling.

1. Identify the final judgment, decree, order or proceeding and actual entry or taking.
2. Rule 1.090(a) incorporates Rule 2.514(a). Exclude the established event. For seven days or longer, begin with the next day that is not Saturday, Sunday or a legal holiday. Count intermediate calendar days. For fewer than seven days, omit intermediate Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays. Do not treat a seven-day period as seven business days.
3. Check the observed statutory holidays, actual clerk calendar and chief-justice directions.
4. Complete the required act with the proper court or recipient.

Apply the observed New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King Jr. birthday, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Veterans’ Day, Thanksgiving Day, Friday after Thanksgiving and Christmas Day holidays. Section 110.117 observes Saturday holidays on the preceding Friday and Sunday holidays on the following Monday. Rule 2.514 also includes clerk-observed holidays and days designated by the chief justice or chief judge. An ineligible final day moves in the counting direction. The bundled Florida calendar covers 2026 through 2028. Verify additional closures and chief-justice extensions separately.

Every Rule 1.540(b) ground retains a reasonable-time condition. The one-year ceiling applies only to grounds (1), (2) and (3). A single entry date cannot decide reasonable time, applicable grounds or entitlement to relief.

The first three grounds have both timing conditions

Mistake, inadvertence, surprise or excusable neglect; qualifying newly discovered evidence; and fraud, misrepresentation or adverse-party misconduct fall within grounds (1), (2) and (3). They require reasonable time and no more than one year after entry or taking. Qualifying new evidence also requires the stated due-diligence condition.

The later grounds still require reasonable time

Ground (4) addresses a void disposition. Ground (5) addresses satisfaction, release, discharge, reversal or vacatur of the stated prior disposition, or inequitable prospective application. The rule does not apply the one-year ceiling to those grounds, but its reasonable-time text remains.

The motion does not suspend finality or operation

Rule 1.540(b) expressly preserves finality and operation during the motion. A filed motion is not an automatic stay, extension or granted relief.

The ordinary enlargement rule excludes these motions

Rule 1.090(b)(2) prohibits extending time for a new-trial motion, rehearing motion or motion to alter or amend a judgment. It also names Rule 1.540(b) relief, appeals, certiorari and directed-verdict motions. A pending extension request does not replace a timely prescribed act. Case-management extensions and trial continuances follow separate rules.

Clerical mistakes and independent actions remain separate

Rule 1.540(a) treats clerical correction and its appellate-stage conditions separately. Paragraph (b) preserves the court’s power concerning independent actions and fraud upon the court. Those provisions do not establish entitlement or timing for the present motion.

• This page does not establish grounds for relief, an actual court hearing, a bond amount, fee entitlement or appeal preservation.
• Check the operative procedural edition, actual filing and service records, motions, court directions and additional closures.

• Identify the final judgment, decree, order or proceeding and actual entry or taking.
• Classify the proposed ground under the five listed categories.
• Preserve facts needed to establish reasonable time and any separate one-year ceiling.
• Mistake, inadvertence, surprise or excusable neglect; qualifying newly discovered evidence; and fraud, misrepresentation or adverse-party misconduct fall within grounds (1), (2) and (3). They require reasonable time and no more than one year after entry or taking. Qualifying new evidence also requires the stated due-diligence condition.
• Ground (4) addresses a void disposition. Ground (5) addresses satisfaction, release, discharge, reversal or vacatur of the stated prior disposition, or inequitable prospective application. The rule does not apply the one-year ceiling to those grounds, but its reasonable-time text remains.
• Rule 1.540(b) expressly preserves finality and operation during the motion. A filed motion is not an automatic stay, extension or granted relief.
• Rule 1.090(b)(2) prohibits extending time for a new-trial motion, rehearing motion or motion to alter or amend a judgment. It also names Rule 1.540(b) relief, appeals, certiorari and directed-verdict motions. A pending extension request does not replace a timely prescribed act. Case-management extensions and trial continuances follow separate rules.
• Rule 1.540(a) treats clerical correction and its appellate-stage conditions separately. Paragraph (b) preserves the court’s power concerning independent actions and fraud upon the court. Those provisions do not establish entitlement or timing for the present motion.
• File the actual motion through the prescribed court procedure and complete required notice and service. Preserve the final disposition, entry evidence, grounds and reasonable-time facts. Rule 1.540(b) does not suspend the disposition’s operation or change its finality. Independent actions and fraud-upon-the-court relief remain separately preserved powers.