How Long Do I Have to Respond to a Lawsuit?

If you have received a summons in a civil case, you have twenty days to respond. In a small claims case, you do not need to respond until your hearing date, or until seven days after you receive a copy of the petition, whichever is later. If you receive a motion in an ongoing civil case, you generally have fifteen days to respond. In any of those cases, you may ask for an extension of the deadline, and judges are often lenient in granting extensions. Depending on how long your deadline is, weekends and holidays may or may not be included in the time period.

You’ve been served with a lawsuit, and you wonder: How long do I have to respond? What if I don’t respond in time?

First, don’t panic. Even if you feel a sense of urgency, you’ll likely have ample time to respond – and judges are often lenient in granting extensions.

If you received the initial petition in the lawsuit

If you received the initial petition in the lawsuit, there was probably a summons along with it. (If there is no summons, you don’t have to respond. The law doesn’t require you to respond until you receive a summons.)

Look at the summons. More than likely, it will tell you the number of days you have to respond. Under state law, you have twenty days to respond to a summons. However, if there is a longer time frame stated in the summons, then you don’t have to respond until the summons says you do.

If there is a shorter time frame (say ten days) printed on the summons, then they have served you with a summons that is not legal. State law gives you twenty days to respond, and the plaintiff is not allowed to shorten that time period.

Do you need more time?

If you need more time to answer a summons, then you may go to court and file a “reservation of time.” If you file a reservation of time, then that automatically gives you an extra twenty days to respond. However, if you file a reservation of time, then you can’t later file the following motions:

• Motion to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction

• Motion to dismiss for improper venue

• Motion to dismiss for insufficiency of process

• Motion to dismiss for insufficiency of service of process

• Motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim

• Motion to dismiss for lack of capacity to be sued.

So if you’re contemplating filing any of those motions, you probably don’t want to file a reservation of time.

If you still think you need more time, call the plaintiff (or his attorney) and see if he will agree to give you more time to answer. If he will agree to give you more time, then you’ve bought more time. If the plaintiff will not agree to give you more time to answer, then you may go to the judge and file a motion for extension of time. In your motion, explain why you need more time.

If you don’t file an answer in time

If you don’t file an answer in time, then the plaintiff may go to court and ask the judge to enter a “default judgment” – that is, the plaintiff will win by default. However, this won’t always happen if you are late with an answer. Many judges are loath to grant default judgments even if the defendant does not file an answer in time. Some judges consider it to be unprofessional conduct for a lawyer to “snap up” a default judgment on the first day possible.

If the other side files a motion for default judgment

If the other side files a motion for default judgment and you have answered (but answered late) then you should explain to the judge why you answered late. If the other side files a motion for default judgment and you have not answered at all, explain to the judge what circumstances led you to not answer.

If you have a good reason for not filing an answer in time, then many judges will be lenient and will not grant a default judgment. (One rule of thumb that is often true but not universal: the smaller the town, the more lenient the judge is in letting you answer out of time.)

Special Rules for Small Claims Court

In small claims court, there are special rules. In small claims court, you don’t need to file an answer – all you do is show up on your court date. The court clerk or judge will print a date on your order to appear, and you must appear on that date.

However, the plaintiff must serve the order on you at least seven days before your hearing. If you receive this document less than seven days before your hearing, they can’t force you to appear on that date. In such a case, you should ask for another hearing date.

Also, even if you do receive notice of the hearing more than seven days in advance, but you can’t make it to the hearing date, you may also ask for a continuance. Call the plaintiff, or the plaintiff’s attorney, and see if the plaintiff will agree to a continuance. If the plaintiff will not agree to a continuance, call the courthouse and see if they will change the date. As with default judgments in other cases, judges are often lenient in granting continuances. If, after your court date, you find out that you have missed the date and failed to appear, call the courthouse, and explain why you did not appear. See if they will give you a rehearing.

If a lawsuit has already been filed, and you were served with a motion in the lawsuit

If a lawsuit is ongoing, and you receive a copy of the motion filed in the lawsuit, you generally have fifteen days to file a response to the motion. Your fifteen-day deadline starts the day after you receive the motion.

In some cases you may receive a copy of a motion, and find out that there is a hearing scheduled less than fifteen days after you received the motion. This usually happens either because of the judge’s oversight in scheduling the hearing, or because the opposing party wasn’t able to serve the motion. If there is a hearing less than fifteen days after you receive the motion, then you have the right to ask the judge to set a new hearing to give you time to respond.

Also, sometimes judges will rule on a motion less than fifteen days after you receive the motion. If a judge does this, you may ask the judge to vacate his order, so that you have time to respond to the motion.

Fifteen days is the response deadline for most motions. However, some motions have shorter or longer response deadlines. One state law holds that no motion may be served less than five days before the hearing. If you receive a motion less than five days before your hearing, ask for a new hearing date. (There are some motions, called “ex parte” motions, which a judge may hear without notice to the other side. An ex parte motion does not need to be served more than five days before the hearing; in fact, an ex parte motion doesn’t need to be served at all.)

If you file a motion to extend the deadline, the judge may extend the deadline, but is not required to. If you file your response after the deadline, the judge has “discretion” to allow this if your delay “was the result of excusable neglect.”

How do courts compute time?

The rules for computation of time in civil cases are found in Section 2006 of the Oklahoma Pleading Code. In summary, these rules say:

• In calculating a deadline, the first day does not count. (That is, if you receive a copy of a summons on September 1, your deadline to respond is September 21, not September 20.)

• The last day does count.

• However, if court clerk’s office is not open on the last day of the deadline, or if the last day of the deadline is a “legal holiday”, then the deadline ends on the soonest day when the court clerk’s office is open. (For example, if you receive a copy of a summons on September 1, 2025, your deadline to file a response would normally be September 21. But in 2025, September 21 is on a Sunday, so your deadline to respond would be Monday, September 22, the next day the court clerk’s office is open.

• If the period of time is greater than ten days, legal holidays, and days when the court clerk’s office is not open, are included in the computation. If the period of time is ten days or less, legal holidays, and days when the court clerk’s office is not open, are not included in the computation. (For example: if you were served with a summons on September 2, your deadline to respond would be twenty days later, on September 22. The intermediate weekends and holidays don’t count. But suppose you are served with a small claims petition. A small claims petition must be served at least seven days before the hearing. If you were served with a petition in small claims court on September 2, and your hearing is on September 9, then your hearing is too soon, because the hearing is exactly seven days later, and there is a Saturday and Sunday in between, and the court clerk’s office is not open on Saturday or Sunday. You would be entitled to ask for a continuance.)

• In Oklahoma, the “legal holidays” are:

  • New Year’s Day

  • Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday (third Monday in January)

  • Presidents’ Day (third Monday in February)

  • Memorial Day (last Monday in May)

  • Independence Day (July 4)

  • Labor Day (first Monday in September)

  • Veterans Day (November 11)

  • Thanksgiving (fourth Thursday in November)

  • The day after Thanksgiving

  • Christmas

  • The day before or after Christmas if Christmas is not on a Saturday or Sunday

  • The Thursday and Friday before Christmas if Christmas is on a Saturday

  • The Monday and Tuesday after Christmas, if Christmas is on a Sunday

  • If any holidays other than Christmas are on Saturday, the preceding Friday shall be a holiday in that year

  • If any holidays other than Christmas are on Sunday, the succeeding Monday shall be a holiday in that year

Are you worried about meeting a deadline? Contact the Persaud Law Office

Many of our clients have come to us when they have a tight deadline. We have been able to extend deadlines for many clients. If you are concerned about meeting a deadline in a lawsuit, we may be able to help. Contact us today.