Responding to a Louisiana petition: 21 days, 30 if discovery came with it

Louisiana runs on its own vocabulary. The plaintiff files a petition, not a complaint. You are served with a citation, not a summons. You raise threshold defenses by exception, not by motion. And the deadline itself has a wrinkle no other state has: it moves if the plaintiff attached discovery.

The deadline

La. C.C.P. art. 1001:

A. A defendant shall file his answer within twenty-one days after service of citation upon him, except as otherwise provided by law. If the plaintiff files and serves a discovery request with his petition, the defendant shall file his answer to the petition within thirty days after service of citation and service of discovery request.

B. When an exception is filed prior to answer and is overruled or referred to the merits, or is sustained and an amendment of the petition ordered, the answer shall be filed within fifteen days after the exception is overruled or referred to the merits, or fifteen days after service of the amended petition.

C. The court may grant additional time for answering.

Three periods, and which one you are on depends on what the plaintiff did.

Twenty-one days is the base. It runs from service of citation.

Thirty days if discovery came with the petition. Check the envelope before you calendar anything. A plaintiff who serves interrogatories or a request for production along with the petition has bought you nine extra days — and has also started your discovery clock.

Fifteen days after an exception is resolved. Louisiana's exceptions do the work that Rule 12 motions do elsewhere, and filing one before you answer suspends the answer delay.

The obligation is to file, not merely to serve.

The safety valve: art. 1002

Louisiana gives a defendant something almost no other state does.

La. C.C.P. art. 1002:

Notwithstanding the provisions of Article 1001, the defendant may file his answer or other pleading at any time prior to the signing of a default judgment against him.

Read that carefully, because it is genuinely unusual. Missing the twenty-one days does not, by itself, cost you the case. Until a judge actually signs the default judgment, you can still file an answer, and filing it stops the default.

Two cautions, though.

It is a race, not a grace period. The article gives you until the signature, and you have no way of knowing when the plaintiff will present the judgment. A late answer works only if it lands first.

And "prior to the signing" is the whole test. Once the judgment is signed, art. 1002 is spent and you are into the nullity articles, which are far narrower.

Default judgment

Louisiana asks more of a plaintiff seeking default than most states do.

La. C.C.P. art. 1702(A)(1):

If a defendant in the principal or incidental demand fails to answer or file other pleadings within the time prescribed by law or by the court, and the plaintiff establishes a prima facie case by competent and admissible evidence that is admitted on the record, a default judgment in favor of the plaintiff may be rendered, provided that notice that the plaintiff intends to obtain a default judgment is sent if required by this Paragraph, unless such notice is waived.

That is a real evidentiary burden. A Louisiana default judgment is not a clerical act; the plaintiff has to put on a prima facie case, on the record, with admissible evidence.

And notice is often required. Article 1702(A)(2):

If a party who fails to answer has made an appearance of record in the case, notice that the plaintiff intends to obtain a default judgment shall be sent by certified mail or actually delivered to counsel of record for the party, or if there is no counsel of record, to the party, at least seven days before a default judgment may be rendered.

Subparagraph (3) extends the same seven days' notice where a lawyer for the non-answering party has written to the plaintiff about the case after it was filed. And in tort cases, notice is required even without either of those:

In cases involving delictual actions where neither Subparagraph (2) or (3) of this Paragraph applies, notice that the plaintiff intends to obtain a default judgment shall be sent by regular mail to the party who fails to answer at the address where service was obtained at least seven days before a default judgment may be rendered.

"Delictual" is Louisiana's word for tort. So in an ordinary injury case, the defendant gets a mailed warning and seven days, whether or not anyone has appeared.

Answering, or excepting

Louisiana sorts threshold objections into three kinds of exception, and the sorting matters because two of them are waivable and one is not.

Declinatory exceptions challenge the court's power over the case or the person. Dilatory exceptions attack the form of the proceeding — vagueness, improper cumulation, want of amicable demand. Both must be pleaded before or with the answer, and article 928 sets the timing.

Peremptory exceptions — no cause of action, no right of action, prescription — are different. They can be raised later, and some can be raised for the first time on appeal.

The practical consequence is the familiar one in a different accent: the objections that are easiest to lose are the ones about how you were brought into court, so deal with them first.

How Louisiana compares

A short checklist

1. Look at what was served before you calendar anything. Citation alone is 21 days. Citation plus a discovery request is 30.
2. The clock runs from service of citation, and the obligation is to file the answer.
3. An exception filed before the answer suspends the delay, and resets it to 15 days once resolved.
4. You can still answer after the deadline — art. 1002 lets you file at any time before a default judgment is signed. Do it immediately; it is a race against the plaintiff's paperwork.
5. If a default judgment is being sought, check for the notice. Seven days' notice is required where you appeared of record, where your lawyer wrote to the plaintiff, or in any tort case.
6. Make the plaintiff prove it. A Louisiana default judgment requires a prima facie case made by competent and admissible evidence admitted on the record.
7. Sort your exceptions. Declinatory and dilatory objections are waivable and have to come before or with the answer; peremptory ones survive longer.
8. Ask for more time if you need it. Article 1001(C) lets the court grant it, and asking early is better than explaining later.

Where these rules live

• La. C.C.P. art. 926 — Objections Raised By Dilatory Exception; Waiver
• La. C.C.P. art. 928 — Time of Pleading Exceptions
• La. C.C.P. art. 1001 — Delay For Answering
• La. C.C.P. art. 1002 — Answer Or Other Pleading Filed Prior to Signing of Default Judgment
• La. C.C.P. art. 1151 — Amendment of Petition and Answer; Answer to Amended Petition
• La. C.C.P. art. 1201 — Citation; Waiver; Delay For Service
• La. C.C.P. art. 1702 — Default Judgment
• La. C.C.P. art. 1703 — Scope of Judgment
• La. C.C.P. art. 2002 — Annulment For Vices of Form; Time For Action
• La. C.C.P. art. 2004 — Annulment For Vices of Substance; Peremption of Action

This page explains what the articles say. It isn't legal advice, and Louisiana's prescription periods — the deadlines for bringing a claim in the first place — are outside what this page covers.