Answering a Louisiana petition: 21 days, or 30 if discovery came with it
Louisiana procedure · Last verified August 17, 2026
Louisiana does not use the vocabulary the rest of the country uses. You are served with a citation, not a summons; the pleading is a petition, not a complaint; and the threshold motions are exceptions, not motions to dismiss.
The answer deadline is 21 days — with two variations that change it.
The basic period
La. C.C.P. art. 1001(A):
A defendant shall file his answer within twenty-one days after service of citation upon him, except as otherwise provided by law. If the plaintiff files and serves a discovery request with his petition, the defendant shall file his answer to the petition within thirty days after service of citation and service of discovery request.
Two periods in one paragraph:
| Situation | Time to answer |
|---|---|
| Ordinary service of citation | 21 days |
| Plaintiff served a discovery request with the petition | 30 days |
The trigger for the longer period is precise — the plaintiff must have filed and served a discovery request with the petition, and the 30 days runs from service of citation and service of the discovery request.
That is a rule worth knowing from both sides. A plaintiff serving discovery with the petition buys the defendant nine extra days to answer.
And note the opening qualifier: "except as otherwise provided by law." Special proceedings have their own periods.
The exception route
Louisiana's threshold objections are exceptions, and filing one changes the answer date. Art. 1001(B):
When an exception is filed prior to answer and is overruled or referred to the merits, or is sustained and an amendment of the petition ordered, the answer shall be filed within fifteen days after the exception is overruled or referred to the merits, or fifteen days after service of the amended petition.
| What happened to the exception | Answer due |
|---|---|
| Overruled | 15 days after it is overruled |
| Referred to the merits | 15 days after it is referred |
| Sustained, with amendment of the petition ordered | 15 days after service of the amended petition |
So filing an exception before answering suspends the answer deadline — but only replaces it with fifteen days, which is shorter than the original twenty-one.
More time
Art. 1001(C) is a single sentence:
The court may grant additional time for answering.
No standard is stated and no procedure is prescribed. In practice an extension is sought before the period runs.
Why the deadline matters more here
Missing the answer date in Louisiana leads to a default judgment under arts. 1702–1704 — and since the 2022 overhaul that is a one-step process, not the old preliminary default and confirmation. The plaintiff must still prove a prima facie case with competent evidence, and in tort cases must give you seven days' notice by regular mail, but there is no second stage at which a sleeping defendant gets a natural second chance.
The details are in this site's guide on the Louisiana default judgment.
How Louisiana compares
| Louisiana | Texas | Georgia | Federal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Time to respond | 21 days | Monday after 20 days | 30 days | 21 days |
| Longer period if discovery served with the pleading | yes — 30 days | no | no | no |
| Threshold objections called | exceptions | special exceptions / plea | motions | motions |
| Time after a threshold objection fails | 15 days | — | — | 14 days |
| Court may extend | yes, expressly | yes | yes | yes |
The second row is close to unique. Very few states lengthen the answer period because the plaintiff chose to serve discovery early.
A short checklist
- Find the date of service of citation. Everything runs from it.
- Check whether a discovery request was served with the petition. If it was, you have 30 days, not 21 — and the clock runs from service of both.
- Decide early whether to file an exception. It postpones the answer, but only to fifteen days after the exception is overruled or referred, or after service of an amended petition.
- Do not assume an exception buys a lot of time. Fifteen days is shorter than the original twenty-one.
- Ask for more time before the period runs — art. 1001(C) permits it, but nothing says a late request will be entertained.
- If you have already missed the date, read the default rules now. Louisiana's one-step default under art. 1702 can move quickly, and in tort cases the seven-day notice may be the only warning you get.
- Watch for "except as otherwise provided by law." Summary and executory proceedings run on their own periods.
Where these rules live
- La. C.C.P. art. 891 — Form of original petition
- La. C.C.P. art. 928 — Time of pleading exceptions
- La. C.C.P. art. 1001 — Delay For Answering
- La. C.C.P. art. 1002 — Answer filed prior to signing of default judgment
- La. C.C.P. art. 1003 — Form of answer
- La. C.C.P. art. 1702 — Default Judgment
This page explains what the Code says. It isn't legal advice, and the periods for summary and executory proceedings, which art. 1001 excepts as "otherwise provided by law", are not covered here.