Responding to a D.C. complaint: 21 days, and a 14-day grace on defaults

The District tracks the federal rules closely, then adds two things federal practice does not have: a 14-day grace period on defaults the court enters by itself, and a praecipe — a one-page agreement between the parties that buys three extra weeks without asking a judge.

Both are worth knowing before you need them.

The deadline

D.C. Super. Ct. Civ. R. 12(a)(1):

(A) A defendant must serve an answer within 21 days after being served with the summons and complaint. (B) A party must serve an answer to a counterclaim or crossclaim within 21 days after being served with the pleading that states the counterclaim or crossclaim. (C) A party must serve a reply to an answer within 21 days after being served with an order to reply, unless the order specifies a different time.

Twenty-one days, and the obligation is to serve.

Government defendants get 60 days. Rule 12(a)(2):

The United States or the District of Columbia or an agency, officer, or employee of either sued only in an official capacity must serve an answer to a complaint, counterclaim, or crossclaim within 60 days after service on the United States attorney (in suits involving the United States) or the Attorney General for the District of Columbia (in suits involving the District of Columbia).

Note where the clock starts — service on the United States attorney or the Attorney General, not on the agency or the individual. Rule 12(a)(3) extends the same 60 days to officers and employees sued in an individual capacity for acts done on the government's behalf.

The praecipe: 21 extra days without a judge

D.C. Super. Ct. Civ. R. 55(a)(3):

Before an order of default is issued, the time to plead or otherwise defend may be extended by one of the following: (A) an order granting a motion, which shows good cause for the extension; or (B) a praecipe, signed by the parties or their representatives, and filed with the court, which provides for a one-time extension of not more than 21 days within which to plead or otherwise respond.

This is the most useful provision in the District's rules for a defendant who needs a little room. If the other side agrees, you sign a praecipe, file it, and the deadline moves by up to three weeks. No motion, no good-cause showing, no hearing.

Three limits. It is one time only. It is capped at 21 days. And it has to be filed before an order of default is issued — once the default is in, the praecipe route is closed and you are asking the court for relief instead.

The 14-day grace period

D.C. Super. Ct. Civ. R. 55(a)(2):

Any order of default entered on the court's or the clerk's own initiative, including a default for failure to respond to the complaint within the time prescribed in Rule 12(a), will not take effect until 14 days after the date on which it is docketed and must be vacated if the court grants a motion filed by defendant within the 14-day period showing good cause why the default should not be entered.

Read what that does. A default the court enters by itself is not effective on the day it is docketed. For fourteen days it sits there, and a defendant who files a good-cause motion inside that window gets it vacated — the rule says "must," not "may."

Two conditions to watch.

It applies only to defaults entered on the court's or clerk's own initiative. A default entered on the plaintiff's motion is not covered.

And the fourteen days run from docketing, not from when you find out. Check the docket rather than the mail.

Default judgment

Rule 55(b)(1) lets the clerk enter judgment on a sum certain, with one significant carve-out:

Except in an action initiated by a debt collector to collect a consumer debt as defined in D.C. Code § 28-3814 …

So in consumer debt collection cases the clerical shortcut is unavailable, and the plaintiff must go to a judge. That reflects a District-wide policy about default judgments in debt buyer litigation, where the paperwork is often thin.

Everything else goes to the court under Rule 55(b)(2), with the federal structure: no default judgment against a minor or incompetent person unless represented, and 7 days' written notice to a party who has appeared.

Answering, or moving

Rule 12(b) carries the pre-answer defences on the restyled federal model, and serving one alters the 21 days as the rule provides. Consolidation and waiver track Rule 12(g) and (h): a defence available when you made your first motion and left out of it is generally gone.

Conversion applies as well. Material outside the pleadings presented on a failure-to-state-a-claim motion, and not excluded, turns it into a summary judgment motion under Rule 56.

How the District compares

A short checklist

1. Calendar 21 days from service, and note the obligation is to serve your answer.
2. If you are a government defendant, you have 60 days — counted from service on the United States attorney or the Attorney General, not on you.
3. If you need time, ask the other side for a praecipe. One time, up to 21 days, filed with the court, no judge required.
4. File it before any order of default issues. After that the route closes.
5. A Rule 12 motion suspends the answer deadline, and raising your defences together protects them.
6. If the court entered a default on its own initiative, you have 14 days from docketing to file a good-cause motion — and the rule says the court must vacate if it grants one.
7. Watch the docket, not the mail. Both the 14 days and your response deadlines run from filing dates.
8. Appear. Seven days' notice before a court's default judgment depends on it.

Where these rules live

• D.C. Super. Ct. Civ. R. 4 — Summons
• D.C. Super. Ct. Civ. R. 5 — Serving and Filing Pleadings and Other Papers
• D.C. Super. Ct. Civ. R. 6 — Computing and Extending Time; Time for Motion Papers
• D.C. Super. Ct. Civ. R. 8 — General Rules of Pleading
• D.C. Super. Ct. Civ. R. 12 — Defenses and Objections
• D.C. Super. Ct. Civ. R. 15 — Amended and Supplemental Pleadings
• D.C. Super. Ct. Civ. R. 55 — Default; Default Judgment
• D.C. Super. Ct. Civ. R. 60 — Relief from a Judgment or Order

This page explains what the rules say. It isn't legal advice, and the Superior Court's Landlord and Tenant and Small Claims branches run on their own timetables that this page does not cover.