54.01 Definition and construction

A judgment is simply a written decision from the court that resolves a claim in a case. But not every judgment can be appealed right away. For a judgment to be "final" and appealable, it usually needs to settle every issue for every person involved in the case.

There's an exception to this rule. A court can sometimes make a judgment final and appealable even if it doesn't resolve every single issue in the case. This happens under Rule 54.02, which allows a judge to specifically state that part of a case is final, even while other parts are still being worked out.

This matters because you generally can't appeal a court decision until it's truly final. If a judgment only decides part of a case and hasn't been marked final under Rule 54.02, you typically have to wait until the whole case is finished before you can challenge it in a higher court.