If the court decides to hold a hearing on my litigious motion, what day of the week will it be set on?

A fixed day for motion hearings

Where the court decides to conduct a hearing on a litigious motion, the rule directs that the resulting hearing be set specifically on a Friday. Rather than leaving the actual scheduling entirely to the court's own general calendar preferences on a case-by-case basis, this establishes one designated day of the week set aside specifically for hearings of this kind, applying the same way across courts rather than varying by judge or sala.

The exception for urgent motions

The Friday requirement does not apply across the board without limit, however. It expressly excepts motions requiring immediate action — matters that genuinely cannot wait for the next available Friday must still be heard promptly, on whatever day the underlying urgency actually demands, rather than being artificially forced into the fixed weekly schedule regardless of how pressing the matter is. Whether a particular motion qualifies as one requiring immediate action is not left undefined by implication alone; courts look at whether waiting for the next Friday would genuinely defeat the relief being sought, such as a matter involving imminent harm or an expiring deadline.

Why courts might use a set day like this

Consolidating litigious-motion hearings onto one particular day of the week allows a given court to manage its overall calendar considerably more predictably, grouping similar kinds of proceedings together on the same day rather than scattering motion hearings unevenly across every single day of an already busy docket, while still leaving adequate room for genuinely urgent matters to be heard entirely outside that fixed pattern when necessary. It also gives lawyers a predictable rhythm to their practice, since counsel appearing regularly before the same court can generally expect litigious motions to cluster on that one weekday rather than being scattered unpredictably across the whole calendar.

What this means for scheduling expectations

A party whose litigious motion is actually set for a hearing, as opposed to being resolved without one, should generally expect that particular hearing to land on a Friday, unless the motion happens to be one of the kind requiring immediate action, in which case the ordinary Friday-setting practice simply does not control the scheduling. Counsel calendaring a litigious motion can plan around that expectation instead of waiting on a court notice to learn the day of the week, which also makes it easier to coordinate opposing counsel's availability in advance.

Related provisions

• Rule 15, Section 8 — Motion day
• Rule 15, Section 7 — Proof of service necessary
• Rule 15, Section 9 — Omnibus motion