When someone sues you, you are served with two documents: a summons and a complaint. The summons is the court’s official notice that a case has been filed naming you as the defendant and tells you how long you have to respond. The complaint explains why the other side is suing you and what they want. Together these papers start a strict clock, and what you are served with when being sued matters because ignoring it can cost you the case before a judge ever hears your side.
What the Summons Tells You
The summons identifies the court handling the case, lists the full names of everyone involved, and gives you the case number you will need for every future filing.1Legal Information Institute. Wex – Summons Most importantly, it states your deadline to respond. That deadline is not a suggestion. Miss it and the other side can ask the court for a judgment in their favor without any input from you.
Read the summons first, before anything else. The response window printed on it is the single most important piece of information you now hold.
What the Complaint Tells You
The complaint is where the person suing you lays out their case. It describes what they claim happened, identifies the legal theories they are relying on (such as negligence, breach of contract, or fraud), and specifies what they want from the court.2Legal Information Institute. Wex – Complaint That last part, sometimes called the prayer for relief, usually asks for money damages. It can also ask the court to order you to do something or stop doing something.
Read it closely and read every paragraph. Each factual allegation is something you will eventually have to admit, deny, or say you lack enough information to answer. Anything you fail to address later will be treated as admitted.
How the Papers Were Delivered
The method of delivery matters more than people realize. If service was not done correctly, the court may lack authority over you, and you can challenge the entire case on that basis. But that defense evaporates if you don’t raise it immediately, so understanding how you were served is worth your time.
Personal Service
The most common method is personal service: someone physically hands you the summons and complaint.3Legal Information Institute. Wex – Personal Service You do not have to accept the papers willingly. If the process server identifies you and leaves the documents at your feet, that counts.
Substituted Service
When a server makes repeated attempts to find you and can’t, courts allow substituted service. The server leaves the documents with a responsible adult at your home or workplace and then mails a second copy to your last known address.3Legal Information Institute. Wex – Personal Service The person at the door must be old enough and competent enough to understand the importance of the papers. Handing them to a small child would not qualify.
Service by Mail
Some jurisdictions allow service by certified or registered mail with a return receipt. The signed receipt creates a record proving delivery.
Service by Publication
This is the method of last resort. If no one can find you despite genuine effort, a court may authorize the plaintiff to publish a notice of the lawsuit in a newspaper.4Legal Information Institute. Wex – Service by Publication Courts are reluctant to allow this and require proof that conventional methods failed first.
Who Can Legally Hand You the Papers
Under federal rules, any person who is at least 18 years old and is not a party to the lawsuit can serve the summons and complaint.5Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 4 – Summons The plaintiff cannot hand you the papers personally. In practice, service is typically handled by a sheriff’s deputy, a court-appointed official, or a professional process server. Many states follow similar rules, though the specifics vary.
One variation worth knowing: in federal cases, a plaintiff can mail a written request asking you to waive formal service. If you sign and return the waiver, you get 60 days from when the request was sent to respond instead of the standard 21.5Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 4 – Summons Signing does not waive your right to challenge jurisdiction or venue.
Your Deadline to Respond
The summons states your deadline clearly, and the clock starts the moment you are served. In federal court you have 21 days to respond after receiving the summons and complaint.6Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 12 – Defenses and Objections State courts set their own deadlines, which typically range from 20 to 30 days. Check the summons rather than guessing, because the number varies not only by state but sometimes by case type.
Filing certain pretrial motions can pause the clock on your answer. If the court denies the motion, you then have 14 days to file your answer.6Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 12 – Defenses and Objections
What Happens If You Ignore It
Ignoring a lawsuit does not make it go away. If you miss your deadline, the plaintiff can ask the court for a default judgment, meaning the court rules in their favor without ever hearing your side. The judgment can include everything the plaintiff asked for in the complaint: the full amount of claimed damages, accrued interest, court costs, and attorney’s fees.
Once a default judgment is entered, the plaintiff becomes a judgment creditor with powerful collection tools. They can garnish your wages, levy your bank accounts (freezing and seizing funds), and place liens against your real estate that must be satisfied before you can sell or refinance. What’s protected varies by state, but the consequences are serious across the board.
Courts can undo a default judgment under narrow circumstances, such as excusable neglect, fraud by the other side, or defective service, but relief is not guaranteed and most grounds carry a one-year deadline.7Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 60 – Relief From a Judgment or Order Simply forgetting to respond will not qualify. The reliable approach is to answer on time.
How to Respond: The Answer
Your formal written response is called an answer. It is a structured legal document, not a letter explaining your side, and getting it wrong can lock you into damaging admissions.
Addressing Each Allegation
For every factual claim in the complaint you must do one of three things: admit it, deny it, or state that you lack enough information to know whether it is true. The third option has the same legal effect as a denial. Any allegation you fail to address is automatically treated as admitted.8Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 8 – General Rules of Pleading Skip a paragraph by accident and you may have conceded a critical fact.
Affirmative Defenses
An affirmative defense goes beyond a simple denial. Instead of saying “I didn’t do it,” you are saying “even if I did, here’s a legal reason you can’t recover.” Common examples include the statute of limitations (the plaintiff waited too long to sue), assumption of risk, accord and satisfaction, and fraud.8Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 8 – General Rules of Pleading You must raise affirmative defenses in your answer. Leave one out and you risk losing the right to use it later.
Counterclaims
If the plaintiff owes you something related to the same situation, you may be required to file a counterclaim in your answer. Under federal rules, a counterclaim that arises out of the same events as the plaintiff’s lawsuit is “compulsory,” meaning you must include it or lose the right to bring it as a separate case later.9Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 13 – Counterclaim and Crossclaim A claim involving unrelated events is optional. Counterclaims are not limited by the original lawsuit’s scope; you can ask for more money or a different type of relief than the plaintiff requested.
Challenging the Lawsuit Before You Answer
You don’t always have to answer the complaint directly. If there is a fundamental problem with the lawsuit, you can file a motion to dismiss first. The two most commonly used grounds are that the court lacks jurisdiction over you and that the complaint fails to state a valid legal claim even if everything in it were true.6Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 12 – Defenses and Objections
Timing is unforgiving. Lack of personal jurisdiction, improper venue, and insufficient service of process must be raised in your first response. If you file an answer without mentioning them, or file a different motion and leave them out, those defenses are permanently waived.6Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 12 – Defenses and Objections This is one of the most common mistakes self-represented defendants make: answering on the merits while accidentally giving up a winning procedural argument.
First Steps After Being Served
- Read the summons first. Find your response deadline, mark it on a calendar, and count backward to give yourself working time. Do not assume you have 30 days.
- Preserve everything, including the envelope. The postmark can matter to your deadline calculation.
- Notify your insurance company immediately if the lawsuit involves a car accident, an injury on your property, a professional services dispute, or anything else that might fall under a liability policy. Most liability policies require notice “as soon as practicable,” and failing to report can result in a complete loss of coverage. Your insurer may have a duty to defend you and provide an attorney at no cost.
- Consult an attorney. The procedural rules are dense and the consequences of a mistake are permanent. A lawyer can spot weaknesses in the complaint, identify affirmative defenses you might not recognize, and make sure your answer is filed correctly before the deadline.
- Do not contact the plaintiff directly. Anything you say can be used against you. If you want to explore settlement, do it through a lawyer.