Disclaimer: The information on this web page is provided as a service and a convenience by the Connecticut Judicial Branch. It is not intended as legal advice to any person. If you have questions about the use of these forms, your legal rights, or particular issues in your case, it is strongly recommended that you talk to an attorney.
Due to the changing nature of the law, the forms and information found on this web site will change from time to time. It is up to you to follow the current procedures and to file the correct, up-to-date forms. Each court location has a Clerk's Office and many locations also have a Court Service Center that can give you help and information about court procedures. Please note, however, that Clerk's Office and Court Service Center personnel cannot provide you with legal advice.
Instructions
or find additional information at the
Law Libraries. Court Staff
can help you understand the legal process, and while they may give you
procedural information, they cannot give you legal advice.To file a motion to have a civil judgment opened you have to fill out the following 2 forms:
By filing an Appearance form you are telling the court that you are
acting as your own attorney and giving the court your mailing address. Once
you file an Appearance, all court notices and papers filed about your case
that are filed after your Appearance will be sent to the address on your
Appearance.
The Motion to Open Judgment is to be filled out by the
party who wants to have a judge open the case. There is a space on the form
for you to give the reason why the judgment should be opened. You must sign
the motion in front of the Court Clerk. Please do not sign the Motion to
Open Judgment before you arrive at the Clerk’s office.
The Motion to Open Judgment has a filing fee. If you cannot afford to pay the fee, there
is a form you can use to ask the court to excuse you from paying the fee. It
is the Application for
Waiver of Fees (JD-CV-120). Do not sign this form until you are in front
of a court clerk or a notary public.
The court will have a hearing on
your Motion to Open Judgment. It will be scheduled in one of two ways.
First, the motion can come up on a Court Short Calendar;
in this case you would wait to get a calendar from the court and then follow
the instructions printed on it. A second way to have your motion scheduled
is to ask that the Clerk assign a date. In this case you must have the
motion delivered to, or served on, the other party by a State Marshal. The
Clerk’s Office or the Court Service Center can give you a
list of State Marshals. The
State Marshal will charge a fee for delivering this paper. You must pay this
fee unless the court decides that you cannot afford to pay. You can ask the
court to decide to have the Marshal’s fee paid by the Court by filling out
and filing the
Application for Waiver of Fees form (JD-CV-120). You should file the
Application for Waiver of Fees at the same time that you file the Motion to
Open Judgment.