Responding to an Oklahoma petition: 20 days, and the extension that costs you defenses

Oklahoma gives a defendant 20 days, and then offers something that looks like a favor and is really a trade. You can file a reservation of time and buy twenty more days without asking a judge. Filing it waives six defenses.

That trade is the single most important thing to understand about responding in Oklahoma.

The deadline

Okla. Stat. tit. 12, § 2012(A):

1. Unless a different time is prescribed by law, a defendant shall serve an answer: a. within twenty (20) days after the service of the summons and petition upon the defendant, b. within twenty (20) days after the service of the summons and petition upon the defendant, or within the last day for answering if applicable; provided, a defendant may file a reservation of time which shall extend the time to respond twenty (20) days from the last date for answering. The filing of such a reservation of time waives defenses of paragraphs 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 9 of subsection B of this section.

Twenty days from service, extendable by twenty more — at a price.

What the reservation costs

Subsection B lists the defenses that may be raised by motion. The six that a reservation of time waives are:

That is a steep price, and paragraph 6 is the one that stings. Failure to state a claim is ordinarily among the most durable defenses there is — under the federal rule it survives all the way to trial. In Oklahoma, twenty extra days spends it.

What survives a reservation: lack of subject-matter jurisdiction, failure to join a party under § 2019, another action pending between the same parties, and lack of capacity to sue.

The practical rule follows directly. If you might have a threshold defense, do not reserve time. Move within the twenty days instead, or ask the court for an extension that does not carry the waiver.

The other periods

Cross-claims and replies run on the same twenty days.

And the plaintiff can elect 35 days for you. Section 2012(A)(4):

The party requesting a summons to be issued or filing a counter-claim or cross-claim may elect to have the answer served within thirty-five (35) days in lieu of the twenty (20) days set forth in this section.

So read the summons itself. The period is not always twenty days, and the choice was not yours.

After a motion is denied, § 2012(A)(5):

The service of a motion permitted under this section or a motion for summary judgment alters these periods of time as follows: if the court denies the motion or postpones its disposition until the trial on the merits, the responsive pleading shall be served within twenty (20) days after notice of the court's action, unless a different time is fixed by order of the court.

Two things there. Twenty days is more generous than the ten or fourteen most states allow. And Oklahoma expressly includes a summary judgment motion among the filings that suspend the answer deadline, which most states do not.

Answering, or moving

Section 2012(B) carries ten defenses that may be raised by motion rather than in the answer. Beyond the six a reservation waives, the list includes lack of subject-matter jurisdiction, failure to join a party under § 2019, another action pending between the same parties for the same claim, and lack of capacity to sue.

A motion making any of these must be made before pleading if a further pleading is permitted. As elsewhere, the ordinary consequence of leaving an available defense out of a first motion is that you cannot raise it in a second.

Vocabulary

Oklahoma's civil procedure lives in statutes, in title 12 of the Oklahoma Statutes, rather than in numbered court rules. The pleading that starts a case is a petition. The citations therefore look like "12 O.S. § 2012" rather than "Rule 12," though the numbering deliberately echoes the federal rules — § 2012 is Oklahoma's Rule 12, § 2056 its Rule 56.

How Oklahoma compares

A short checklist

1. Read the summons before you calendar. The answer period is 20 days unless the party requesting the summons elected 35.
2. Do not file a reservation of time if you have any threshold defense. It waives personal jurisdiction, venue, process, service, failure to state a claim, and capacity to be sued.
3. If you need time and have defenses to protect, move within the 20 days or ask the court for an extension instead.
4. A motion under § 2012 suspends the answer deadline, and so does a motion for summary judgment.
5. After a denial you have 20 days from notice of the court's action — more room than most states allow, but it still runs.
6. Raise your § 2012(B) defenses together. An available defense left out of the first motion is generally foreclosed.
7. Check what survives. Subject-matter jurisdiction, failure to join a party, another pending action, and lack of capacity to sue are not waived by a reservation.

Where these rules live

• Okla. Stat. tit. 12, § 2004 — Process
• Okla. Stat. tit. 12, § 2005 — Service and Filing of Pleadings and Other Papers
• Okla. Stat. tit. 12, § 2006 — Time
• Okla. Stat. tit. 12, § 2008 — General Rules of Pleading
• Okla. Stat. tit. 12, § 2012 — Defenses and Objections - When and How Presented - By Pleading Or Motion
• Okla. Stat. tit. 12, § 2015 — Amended and Supplemental Pleadings
• Okla. Stat. tit. 12, § 2056 — Motions For Summary Judgment
• Okla. Stat. tit. 12, § 1031 — District Court - Power to Vacate Or Modify Its Judgments, When
• Okla. Stat. tit. 12, § 1038 — Limitations

This page explains what the statutes say. It isn't legal advice, and the standard for vacating a judgment under § 1031 is developed in case law this site doesn't cover.