Responding to a Rhode Island complaint: 20 days, and ten days' notice before judgment

Rhode Island gives a defendant 20 days, on the short side. It compensates at the other end: a defendant who has appeared is entitled to ten days' written notice before a default judgment — more than any other state on this site, and more than the federal seven.

The deadline

R.I. Super. Ct. R. Civ. P. 12(a)(1):

A defendant shall serve an answer: (A) Within twenty (20) days after the service of the summons, complaint, Language Assistance Notice, and all other required documents upon the defendant, unless the court directs otherwise when service of process is made pursuant to an order of court. Where service upon a defendant is made by publication of an order of notice, a defendant shall serve an answer within twenty (20) days after the last publication of said order of notice, or (B) If service of the summons has been timely waived on request under Rule 4(d), within sixty (60) days after the date when the request for waiver was sent, or within ninety (90) days after that date if the defendant was addressed outside the United States.

Three periods.

Twenty days on ordinary service, running from the summons, complaint, Language Assistance Notice and all other required documents — the clock does not start until the full packet is served.

Twenty days after the last publication where service was by published order of notice.

Sixty days if you waived service — ninety if you were addressed outside the United States. That is a forty-day bonus for returning a waiver, one of the better trades available to a defendant who intends to appear anyway. Note the sixty days runs from when the request was sent, not from when you returned it.

Cross-claim answers and replies run on the same 20 days, under paragraph (2).

After a motion, paragraph (3):

(A) If the court denies the motion or postpones its disposition until the trial on the merits, the responsive pleading shall be served within ten (10) days after notice of the court's action.

Ten days is short. Draft the answer before you file the motion.

Default

R.I. Super. Ct. R. Civ. P. 55(a):

When a party against whom a judgment for affirmative relief is sought has failed to plead or otherwise defend as provided by these rules and that fact is made to appear by affidavit or otherwise, the clerk shall enter the party's default.

Clerical entry, no notice required beforehand.

Rule 55(b)(1) — the clerk's judgment:

When the plaintiff's claim against a defendant is for a sum certain or for a sum which can by computation be made certain, the clerk upon request of the plaintiff and upon affidavit of the amount due shall enter judgment for that amount and costs against the defendant, if the defendant has been defaulted for failure to appear and if the defendant is not an infant or incompetent person.

Rule 55(b)(2) — everything else, and the ten days:

In all other cases the party entitled to a judgment by default shall apply to the court therefor; but no judgment by default shall be entered against an infant or incompetent person unless represented in the action by a guardian, guardian ad litem, or such other representative who has appeared therein. If the party against whom judgment by default is sought has appeared in the action, the party (or, if appearing by representative, the party's representative) shall be served with written notice of the application for judgment at least ten (10) days prior to the hearing on such application.

And there is one more document the plaintiff must file. Rule 55(b)(3):

Affidavit Required. Notwithstanding the foregoing, no judgment by default shall be entered until the filing of an affidavit made by some competent person on the affiant's own knowledge, setting forth facts showing that the defendant is not a person in military service as defined in the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (50 U.S.C.A. App. § 501, et seq.), except upon order of the court in accordance with that Act.

Note how demanding that is: the affidavit must be on the affiant's own knowledge and must set out facts showing non-military status. A form recital that the affiant "believes" the defendant is not in the service does not meet it, and its absence blocks the judgment entirely.

Ten days is a meaningful margin. In most states an appearing defendant gets seven, in several only three. Rhode Island gives you a week and a half to prepare something.

But the condition is the same everywhere: it depends on having appeared. There is no notice at all before the entry of default, and none before a clerk's judgment on a sum certain against a defendant who never appeared.

Answering, or moving

Rule 12(b) carries the pre-answer defenses on the familiar model, and serving one alters the 20 days as subdivision (a)(3) provides. Consolidation and waiver work as elsewhere: a defense available when you made your first motion, and omitted from it, is generally foreclosed.

Conversion applies too — outside material presented on a failure-to-state-a-claim motion, and not excluded, turns it into a motion for summary judgment.

How Rhode Island compares

A short checklist

1. Calendar 20 days from service of the full packet — summons, complaint, Language Assistance Notice and any other required documents.
2. If you were served by publication, the 20 days runs from the last publication.
3. If you were sent a waiver request, consider signing it. Waiving gives you 60 days from the date the request was sent, or 90 if you are abroad.
4. A Rule 12 motion suspends the answer deadline, but a denial leaves only 10 days from notice. Draft the answer first.
5. Raise your Rule 12 defenses together. An available defense omitted from the first motion is generally foreclosed.
6. Appear. Ten days' written notice before a default judgment — the longest margin of any state here — depends entirely on it.
7. If a clerk entered judgment, check the affidavit and confirm the claim really was a sum certain or one made certain by computation.
8. Check for the military-service affidavit. No default judgment may be entered without one, made on the affiant's own knowledge and setting out facts.
9. Move before judgment if you can. Relief from an entry of default is materially easier than relief under Rule 60(b).

Where these rules live

• R.I. Super. Ct. R. Civ. P. 4 — Process, Attachment, Trustee Process, Arrest
• R.I. Super. Ct. R. Civ. P. 5 — Service and Filing of Pleadings and Other Papers
• R.I. Super. Ct. R. Civ. P. 6 — Time
• R.I. Super. Ct. R. Civ. P. 8 — General Rules of Pleading
• R.I. Super. Ct. R. Civ. P. 12 — Defenses and Objections
• R.I. Super. Ct. R. Civ. P. 15 — Amended and Supplemental Pleadings
• R.I. Super. Ct. R. Civ. P. 55 — Default
• R.I. Super. Ct. R. Civ. P. 60 — Relief from Judgment or Order

This page explains what the Superior Court rules say. It isn't legal advice, and Rhode Island's District Court runs on its own separate rules that this page does not cover.