Puerto Rico procedural guides

Plain-English guides to the Puerto Rico Rules of Civil Procedure, each one tied to the rules it relies on. Every rule named in a guide has its own page with the official text.

• Responding to a Puerto Rico complaint: 30 days, and 60 non-extendable for the governmentPuerto Rico Rule 10.1 gives 30 days after service of the summons and complaint to answer, 10 days for a cross-claim or a reply, and a non-extendable 60 days where the Commonwealth or a municipality is a party.
• The Puerto Rico motion to dismiss: six defenses, and none of them is venuePuerto Rico Rule 10.2 lets six defenses be raised by motion instead of in the answer. Venue is not among them, and a motion attacking the complaint converts into summary judgment if matters outside the pleading come in.
• Moving for summary judgment in Puerto Rico: wait 20 days, and number every factPuerto Rico Rule 36 opens 20 days after service and closes 30 days after discovery ends. Rule 36.3 prescribes six contents for the motion, numbered paragraphs with record citations, and a 20-day response.
• Setting aside a Puerto Rico default: good cause before judgment, six months afterPuerto Rico Rule 45.3 sets aside an entry of default for good cause. Once judgment has been entered you are in Rule 49.2, with six grounds, a reasonable-time requirement and a six-month outer limit that cannot be extended.
• Serving a summons in Puerto Rico: 120 days, and the second failure is with prejudicePuerto Rico Rule 4.3 gives 120 days to serve the summons and requires the clerk to issue it the same day the complaint is filed. Miss the term and the case is dismissed without prejudice; miss it twice and the rule says otherwise.
• Service by publication in Puerto Rico: one notice, ten days, and a letter afterwardsPuerto Rico Rule 4.6 requires a sworn statement of the efforts made, publication once in a newspaper of general circulation, and a certified copy of the summons and complaint mailed within ten days of publication.
• Discovery in Puerto Rico: relevance to the subject matter, and four ways the court can cut it backPuerto Rico Rule 23.1 still defines discovery by relevance to the subject matter and reasonably calculated to lead to admissible evidence. Rule 23.2 gives the court four grounds to limit it and a protective-order power that requires a meet-and-confer certification.
• Compelling discovery in Puerto Rico: the certification, the order, and six sanctionsPuerto Rico Rule 34.1 lets a court consider a discovery motion only if it carries a certification made with particularity. Rule 34.2 treats an evasive answer as no answer, Rule 34.3 lists six sanctions, and Rule 34.5 reaches a party who never responded at all.
• Venue and transfer in Puerto Rico: filing in the wrong part never ends a casePuerto Rico Rule 3.2 says no case is dismissed for being filed in a part of the court without venue. Rules 3.3 to 3.5 say where a case belongs, and Rule 3.6 gives a defendant thirty days to ask for a transfer without waiving anything.
• Amending pleadings in Puerto Rico: before the answer arrives, no permission is neededPuerto Rico Rule 13.1 lets a party amend its own pleading at any time before a responsive pleading is served, with no 21-day cap. Rule 13.2 conforms pleadings to the evidence, and Rule 13.3 ties relation back to the prescriptive term.
• Counterclaims and cross-claims in Puerto Rico: what you must plead, and the thirty days you getPuerto Rico Rule 11.1 makes a counterclaim compulsory when it arises from the same act, omission or occurrence. Rule 11.5 still rescues an omitted one, and Rule 11.6 gives thirty days to file a cross-claim without leave.
• Third-party practice in Puerto Rico: thirty days, and a wider door than the federal rulePuerto Rico Rule 12.1 lets a defendant implead anyone who is or may be liable to it for the plaintiff's claim — or to any party in the action. The complaint goes in without leave for thirty days, then good cause is required.
• Joining parties and claims in Puerto Rico: one sentence decides who is indispensablePuerto Rico Rule 16.1 defines an indispensable party in a single sentence — a joint interest whose absence would impede disposition — with no four-factor fallback. Rule 17 governs permissive joinder and Rule 18 says misjoinder never ends a case.
• Intervention in Puerto Rico: a right that does not ask whether anyone represents youPuerto Rico Rule 21.1 grants intervention of right without the federal condition that existing parties fail to represent the interest adequately. Rule 21.3 lets a court compel the Commonwealth to appear, and Rules 21.5 to 21.7 protect a stranger's attached property.
• Taking a deposition in Puerto Rico: twenty days' notice, and a phone call to the judgePuerto Rico requires twenty days' written notice for a deposition, transcribes every deposition unless all parties agree otherwise, restricts speaking objections by rule, and lets the parties call the judge mid-deposition when a witness refuses to answer.
• Using a deposition in Puerto Rico: five ways in, and the objections you lose by waitingPuerto Rico Rule 29.1 lets a deposition come in for any purpose in five situations, including a witness outside Puerto Rico whose appearance would be burdensome. Rule 29.3 waives most objections not made in time, and Rules 24 and 28 cover written questions and testimony perpetuated before suit.
• Interrogatories in Puerto Rico: no limit of twenty-five, and objections go by motionPuerto Rico Rule 30 sets no numerical cap on interrogatories, requires objections to be stated by motion in lieu of an answer, and makes a party objecting to an answer quote the question and answer verbatim.
• Requesting documents in Puerto Rico: fifteen days to respond, and produce them as they are keptPuerto Rico Rule 31 gives a party fifteen days to respond to a request for production — half the federal period — and directs that documents be produced as they are kept in the usual course of business. Rule 23.3 covers privilege logs and inadvertent production.
• Requests for admission in Puerto Rico: twenty days, a sworn answer, and a warning on the requestPuerto Rico Rule 33 deems a request admitted after twenty days, requires the answer to be sworn by the party, and requires the request itself to warn the defendant of that consequence. An admission is conclusive unless the court permits withdrawal.
• Physical and mental examinations in Puerto Rico: the report arrives without being asked forPuerto Rico Rule 32 lets a court order an examination when a party's condition is in controversy, treats pleading your own condition as a waiver of privacy over related records, and requires the examiner's report to be delivered within forty-five days without a request.
• Class actions in Puerto Rico: a hearing before certification, and leftover money goes to legal aidPuerto Rico Rule 20 requires a hearing before a class is certified, allows conditional certification, permits the court to relax individual notice when it would obstruct the case, and sends residual settlement funds to the Access to Justice Fund.
• Dismissing a case in Puerto Rico: the warning a court must give before it dismisses yoursPuerto Rico Rule 39 lets a plaintiff dismiss by notice before an answer or summary judgment motion, and requires a court to warn counsel, then the party, and allow at least thirty days to cure before dismissing for a first noncompliance. Six months of inactivity triggers a show-cause order.
• Offer of judgment in Puerto Rico: attorney's fees are on the table, and the offer has a required formPuerto Rico Rule 35.1 shifts costs, expenses and attorney's fees when the judgment finally obtained is equal to or less favorable than a rejected offer. The offer must meet five formal requirements and is open for ten days.
• Post-judgment motions in Puerto Rico: fifteen days, one filing, and two different kinds of deadlinePuerto Rico Rule 47 gives fifteen days to move for reconsideration — a strict-compliance term for an order and a jurisdictional term for a judgment — and denies motions that lack specificity without interrupting the appeal clock. Rule 43 requires post-judgment motions to be filed together.
• Appeals and certiorari in Puerto Rico: thirty days, sixty against the government, and a short list for interlocutory reviewPuerto Rico Rule 52 gives thirty jurisdictional days to appeal a judgment, sixty when the Commonwealth is a party, and lists the interlocutory orders the Court of Appeals may review by certiorari. A certiorari petition does not stay proceedings; issuing the writ does.
• Enforcing a money judgment in Puerto Rico: five years, one writ, and a sale that is void without noticePuerto Rico Rule 51 gives five years to execute a judgment without leave, one writ that can be served repeatedly, and a judicial-sale notice procedure so strict that a sale conducted without it is void. Rule 44.3 adds interest from the judgment until it is paid.
• Provisional remedies and injunctions in Puerto Rico: six factors in the rule, and a ten-day restraining orderPuerto Rico Rule 56 lists the provisional remedies a court may grant and when a bond can be waived; Rule 57 sets a ten-day limit on a restraining order and writes six factors for injunctive relief into the rule itself.
• Claims of $15,000 or less in Puerto Rico: a hearing within three months, and judgment the same dayPuerto Rico Rule 60 sends collection cases of $15,000 or less to a summary track: a summons-notice that sets the hearing, a hearing no later than three months after filing, and judgment entered immediately. Either party can move the case back to the ordinary procedure.
• Computing deadlines in Puerto Rico: short periods skip weekends, and seven rules cannot be extendedPuerto Rico Rule 68.1 excludes intermediate weekends and holidays when a period is shorter than seven days, Rule 68.2 lists seven rules whose deadlines a court may not extend, and Rule 68.3 adds three days for service by mail — except after a judgment.
• Effective communication in Puerto Rico courts: an interpreter, a presumption, and a judgment that can be voidedThree Puerto Rico rules protect a party who cannot communicate effectively: Rule 20.7 requires an interpreter or accommodation and presumes the need, Rule 27.3 requires video recording of that party's deposition, and Rule 50.1 makes a judgment voidable when the accommodation was requested and not provided.

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