Criminal Motion Finder: Which Motion Fits Your Case?

Find the Motions That Fit Your Case

Pick a jurisdiction and the phase your case is in, then narrow by issue if you want. The finder lists the motions that typically apply and links each one to a full guide. It runs entirely in your browser and gives general information, not legal advice.

How a Criminal Case Moves Through Four Phases

Every criminal case runs on a timeline, and each stage opens and closes a different set of motions. A motion filed too early can be premature; the same motion filed too late can be forfeited. The Motion Finder sorts the request by the four broad phases that structure both Texas and federal prosecutions.

Pre-indictment and investigation

The stretch between arrest or the start of an investigation and the return of an indictment or the filing of an information. Liberty and property are the main battlegrounds: bail, examining trials, detention hearings, and the return of seized property.

Pretrial

After charges are filed and before the jury is sworn. This is where most motion practice happens, including suppression, discovery, attacks on the charging instrument, severance, competency, and motions in limine.

Trial

From jury selection through the close of evidence and the verdict. Motions here address the jury panel, evidence blurted before the jury, and the legal sufficiency of the government's proof.

Post-verdict

After a verdict or plea and before the judgment becomes final. Motions for new trial, in arrest of judgment, to withdraw a plea, and renewed acquittal motions live here, and most carry short, unforgiving deadlines.

These phases overlap at the edges. A competency question can surface during trial; a bond motion can be renewed as circumstances change; a disclosure obligation under Brady is continuing and never fully closes. The finder therefore lists a motion in every phase where it realistically belongs.

Pre-Indictment and Investigation Motions

Before a grand jury acts, the defense toolkit is narrow but important. The dominant concerns are release from custody and the recovery of seized property.

In Texas, a person charged with a felony by complaint may request an examining trial under art. 16.01, forcing the State to show probable cause before a magistrate, a right that disappears once the grand jury indicts. A motion to reduce bond under art. 17.15 asks the court to set bail that secures appearance without operating as an instrument of oppression.

In federal court, the parallel tools are a motion to revoke or amend a detention order under 18 U.S.C. 3142, litigated at the initial appearance and reviewable under section 3145, and a Rule 41(g) motion for return of property, which can be filed even before an indictment when agents have seized documents, devices, or cash. Grand-jury abuse and immunity questions also take root in this window, though the motions that raise them are usually litigated after charges are returned.

Pretrial Motions: Where Most Battles Are Fought

The pretrial phase carries the heaviest motion practice. Broadly, the motions fall into five families.

Suppression

Motions to suppress ask the court to exclude evidence the government obtained unlawfully. Texas and federal courts both recognize motions to suppress physical evidence, statements or confessions, and eyewitness identifications, plus the Franks hearing that attacks a search-warrant affidavit and, in federal wiretap cases, a Title III suppression motion. The exclusionary rule that powers these motions was made binding on the states in Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U.S. 643 (1961).

Discovery and disclosure

Texas litigants use the Michael Morton Act (art. 39.14) to compel the State's file; federal litigants combine a Rule 16 motion, a Brady and Giglio motion for exculpatory and impeachment material, and a Jencks Act demand for a witness's prior statements. The constitutional floor for all of them is Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83 (1963).

Attacks on the charge

A Texas motion to quash or motion to set aside the charging instrument and a federal motion to dismiss the indictment or bill of particulars test whether the accusation states an offense and gives fair notice.

Structuring the trial

Motions to sever defendants or counts, motions for change of venue, motions in limine, and continuances shape who is tried, where, and on what evidence.

The defendant's condition and the proof

Motions suggesting incompetency, notices of the insanity defense, and challenges to the reliability of forensic and scientific testimony (Kelly-Daubert in Texas, Daubert in federal court) round out the phase. A speedy-trial motion asserting the right recognized in Barker v. Wingo, 407 U.S. 514 (1972), also belongs here.

Texas sets these matters for a pretrial hearing under art. 28.01; federal courts channel them through Rule 12. Both regimes reward early, specific filings and punish late ones.

Trial and Post-Verdict Motions

Once a jury is seated, motion practice narrows to the events of the trial itself. A motion for mistrial asks the court to stop a trial that an incurable error has made unfair. A Texas motion for instructed verdict and a federal Rule 29 motion for judgment of acquittal both argue that no rational juror could convict on the evidence, the sufficiency standard set in Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307 (1979). Jury-selection motions, such as the Texas jury shuffle and challenges to the array, also surface here.

After a verdict, short clocks start to run. In Texas a motion for new trial must be filed within 30 days of sentencing under Rule 21.4 of the Rules of Appellate Procedure, and a motion in arrest of judgment attacks a defect on the face of the record. A motion to withdraw a plea can undo a guilty or nolo plea shown to be involuntary. Federal defendants use Rule 33 for a new trial, a renewed Rule 29(c) acquittal motion, and Rule 11(d) to withdraw a plea before sentencing. Miss one of these deadlines and the issue is often preserved only for appeal, if at all.

Texas and Federal Motion Practice Are Not the Same

Although the two systems address the same constitutional problems, they use different rules, deadlines, and names. The finder keeps them on separate tracks for that reason.

Federal practice also has features with no direct Texas analog, such as the James hearing that many courts in the Fifth Circuit hold before admitting co-conspirator statements, and the Kastigar hearing that forces the government to prove its evidence is independent of immunized testimony. Choosing the wrong jurisdiction's motion, or the wrong name for the right idea, can cost time the deadlines do not forgive.

How to Use the Motion Finder

1. Pick the jurisdiction. Choose Texas for a case in a state district or county court, or Federal for a case in a United States district court.
2. Pick the phase. Tell the finder where the case sits now: pre-indictment, pretrial, trial, or post-verdict.
3. Add an issue (optional). Narrow the list to a category such as search and seizure, statements, discovery, severance, or competency. Leave it on “Any issue” to see everything for the phase.
4. Read the results. The finder returns each applicable motion as a link to its full guide, with a one-line description of what the motion does.

Two cautions. First, the lists overlap and are not exhaustive; a single set of facts can support several motions, and unusual cases call for motions no tool can anticipate. Second, the deadlines are strict and fact-specific, because excludable time can move a federal Speedy Trial Act clock and a Texas pretrial setting can foreclose a motion raised late. Treat the output as a map, not a filing calendar.

Why Timing and Preservation Decide Motions

The most powerful motion is worthless if it is waived. Federal Rule 12(b)(3) requires suppression, misjoinder, and most defects in the indictment to be raised before trial, and a missed deadline forfeits the claim unless the court finds good cause. Texas art. 28.01 works the same way at the pretrial hearing, and the 30-day window for a Texas motion for new trial closes quickly after sentencing.

Preservation also protects the record for appeal. A sufficiency argument survives review only if it was made through an instructed-verdict or Rule 29 motion, and a suppression issue is reviewed only if it was litigated below. Because the disclosure duty under Brady is continuing, a disclosure motion can be renewed whenever new information surfaces, but the safer course is to file early and specifically. When in doubt about a deadline, confirm it against the governing rule and consult a licensed attorney before relying on it.

The Case Law Behind This Tool

The controlling decisions this tool is built on—each verified against the published opinion. Holdings are neutral summaries of the law, not predictions about any case.