Responding to an Iowa petition: 20 days, and ten days' warning before default

Iowa gives a defendant 20 days, among the shorter periods in the country. It then does something almost no other state does: it forbids the clerk from entering a default at all unless the plaintiff first warned you in writing, ten days ahead, that they were going to ask for one.

That notice requirement is the most valuable thing in Iowa's rules for a defendant who has fallen behind.

The deadline

Iowa R. Civ. P. 1.303(1):

Unless otherwise provided, the defendant, respondent, or other party shall serve, and within a reasonable time thereafter file, a motion or answer within 20 days after the service of the original notice and petition upon such party.

Note the two-part obligation: serve within 20 days, and file within a reasonable time after that. The deadline attaches to service; filing follows.

Note also what it is 20 days from — the original notice, Iowa's name for the document that summons you into the case, together with the petition.

And a motion counts. The rule says "a motion or answer," so a pre-answer motion satisfies the deadline in its own right rather than merely suspending it.

The rest of rule 1.303 sets out the exceptions, and two of them matter a great deal:

(4) A defendant, respondent, or other party served by publication or by publication and mailing shall serve, and within a reasonable time thereafter file, a motion or answer on or before the date fixed in the notice as published, which date shall not be less than 20 days after the date of last publication.

(5) A defendant, respondent, or other party served by mail under rule 1.306 shall serve, and within a reasonable time thereafter file, a motion or answer on or before the date fixed in the notice as mailed, which date shall be not less than 60 days following the date of mailing.

Sixty days if you were served by mail. That is three times the ordinary period, and it is easy to miss because nothing about a mailed notice announces that a different rule applies. If service came by mail under rule 1.306, read the date fixed in the notice rather than counting 20 days from your mailbox.

Subrule (2) adds that any Iowa statute setting a specific response time for a particular party or action governs instead, and subrule (3) defers to a date fixed by court order.

The ten-day warning

Iowa R. Civ. P. 1.972(2):

Requests for entry of default under rule 1.972(1) shall be by written application to the clerk of the court in which the matter is pending. No default shall be entered unless the application contains a certification that written notice of intention to file the written application for default was given after the default occurred and at least ten days prior to the filing of the written application for default. A copy of the notice shall be attached to the written application for default. If the certification is filed, the clerk on request of the adverse party must enter the default of record without any order of court.

This is the provision to know. A missed deadline in Iowa does not produce a default; it produces an obligation on the other side to write to you and wait ten days.

Three details decide whether the protection actually helped you.

The notice must come after the default occurred. A warning sent with the petition, or before the 20 days ran, does not satisfy the rule.

It goes to the party by ordinary mail, and to the party's attorney as well where the requesting party knows the party is represented — whether or not that attorney has formally appeared. Rule 1.972(3) says so expressly, while adding that nobody has to go looking for counsel they do not know about.

And the ten days run from mailing, not receipt. Rule 1.972(3)(c) is explicit about that, so the practical window is shorter than ten days by however long the post takes.

Four kinds of case are carved out by rule 1.972(4), and the notice provisions simply do not apply to them:

If you are facing an eviction or a small claims matter, the warning you would get in an ordinary civil case is not coming. Those are precisely the cases where the deadline has to be met the first time.

Who enters the default

Iowa R. Civ. P. 1.972(1):

Entry. If a party not under legal disability or not a prisoner in a reformatory or penitentiary is in default under rule 1.971(1) or 1.971(2), the clerk shall enter that party's default in accordance with the procedures set forth in this rule without any order of court. All other defaults shall be entered by the court.

So the clerical route is closed for a party under a legal disability and for an incarcerated party. Those defaults go to a judge.

Answering, or moving

Rule 1.421 carries Iowa's pre-answer defences — how they are raised, how they consolidate, and how they are waived. Because rule 1.303 accepts "a motion or answer," filing a qualifying motion within the 20 days meets the deadline outright.

Rule 1.443 governs enlargement of time and the additional time allowed after certain kinds of service. As everywhere, a request made before the period expires is treated far more generously than one made after.

Fixing a missed deadline

Two routes, and the distinction is the usual one.

Rule 1.977 governs setting aside a default or a default judgment, on the grounds it names.

Rule 1.1012 supplies the grounds for vacating or modifying a judgment more generally, with its own timetable.

Before either, check the file. If this was an ordinary civil case, the plaintiff had to certify that they sent you a warning and waited ten days, and had to attach a copy. A missing certification, a notice dated before the default occurred, or a notice sent only to you when the plaintiff knew you had a lawyer, are all worth raising.

How Iowa compares

A short checklist

1. Find out how you were served. In hand is 20 days; by mail under rule 1.306 is at least 60; by publication, the date fixed in the notice.
2. Read the date on the original notice rather than counting from the day it reached you.
3. Serve a motion or an answer — either satisfies rule 1.303 — and file within a reasonable time after.
4. If you have missed the deadline, you probably still have ten days. No default may be entered in an ordinary civil case without a certified ten-day written warning.
5. But not in small claims, evictions, juvenile cases, or where service was by publication. In those, default can be entered without any warning at all.
6. Count from the mailing date. The ten days run from when the notice was mailed, not when it arrived.
7. If a default was entered, pull the application. It must carry the certification and attach a copy of the notice; defects there are the first thing to raise.
8. Move promptly under rule 1.977 rather than waiting. The standard tightens once a judgment is in place.

Where these rules live

• Iowa R. Civ. P. 1.302 — Original notice; form, issuance and service
• Iowa R. Civ. P. 1.303 — Time for motion or answer to petition
• Iowa R. Civ. P. 1.402 — General rules of pleading
• Iowa R. Civ. P. 1.421 — Defenses; how raised; consolidation; waiver
• Iowa R. Civ. P. 1.443 — Enlargement; additional time after service
• Iowa R. Civ. P. 1.971 — Default defined
• Iowa R. Civ. P. 1.972 — Procedure for entry of default
• Iowa R. Civ. P. 1.977 — Setting aside default
• Iowa R. Civ. P. 1.1012 — Grounds for vacating or modifying judgment

This page explains what the rules say. It isn't legal advice, and Iowa's small claims procedure runs on its own timetable that this page does not cover.