Responding to a Maine complaint: 20 days, and no clerk's default in a debt case

Maine gives a defendant 20 days, one of the shorter periods in the country. It also carries a protection that matters enormously in the two kinds of case where defaults are most common: foreclosures and debt collection. In those, the clerk cannot enter a default at all.

The deadline

Me. R. Civ. P. 12(a):

A defendant shall serve that defendant's answer within 20 days after the service of the summons, complaint, and notice regarding Electronic Service upon that defendant, unless the court directs otherwise when service of process is made pursuant to an order of court under Rule 4(d) or 4(g), and provided that a defendant served pursuant to Rule 4(e), 4(f), or 4(j) outside the Continental United States or Canada may serve the answer at any time within 50 days after such service. A party who is served with a pleading stating a cross-claim against that party shall serve an answer thereto within 20 days after the service upon that party. The plaintiff shall serve a reply to a counterclaim in the answer within 20 days after service of the answer or, if a reply is ordered by the court, within 20 days after service of the order, unless the order otherwise directs.

Three things.

Twenty days is the base, and the obligation is to serve.

Fifty days if you were served outside the continental United States or Canada. Note the geography: Canada is grouped with the continental US, so service there carries the ordinary 20 days. Alaska and Hawaii are not part of the continental United States, which makes the drafting worth reading closely if that is where you were served.

And the clock runs from the summons, complaint and the electronic service notice — all three.

After a motion:

(1) if the court denies the motion or postpones its disposition until the trial on the merits, the responsive pleading shall be served within 10 days after notice of the court's action; (2) if the court grants a motion for a more definite statement the responsive pleading shall be served within 10 days after the service of the more definite statement.

Ten days is short. Have the answer drafted before you file the motion.

The clerk cannot default you in a debt case

Me. R. Civ. P. 55(a)(1):

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, except that the clerk may not enter a default in a: (A) foreclosure action filed pursuant to Title 14, Chapter 713 of the Maine Revised Statutes; (B) collection action filed pursuant to Title 32, Chapter 109-A of the Maine Revised Statutes and brought by a "debt buyer" as therein defined; or (C) debt collection action based on credit card or student loan debt filed pursuant to Title 32, Chapter 109-A of the Maine Revised Statutes and brought by a "debt collector" as therein defined. Nor may the clerk enter a default if otherwise prohibited from doing so by statute or these rules.

This is a substantial protection, and it is aimed precisely where it is needed. Foreclosures and purchased consumer debt are the cases in which defendants most often fail to appear, and the ones in which the plaintiff's documentation is most often thin. Maine takes those out of the clerk's hands.

But it is not immunity. Rule 55(a)(2):

By the Court. The court may enter a default in any case type, including those listed in subdivision (1)(A) through (C) above, unless prohibited from doing so by statute or these rules.

So a default is still available in a foreclosure or a debt buyer case — it just has to come from a judge rather than over the counter. The practical effect is a hearing, and a hearing is an opportunity.

If you are being foreclosed on or sued by a debt buyer and a default was entered by the clerk, that is a defect in itself, independent of any merits.

Default judgment

Rule 55(b) opens by making the ceiling explicit — judgment by default is "Subject to the limitations of Rule 54(c)", which ties the award to what the pleadings demanded. The clerk may enter judgment where the claim is for a sum certain or for a sum which can by computation be made certain; everything else goes to the court.

Answering, or moving

Rule 12(b) carries the pre-answer defences, and serving one alters the 20 days as subdivision (a) provides. Consolidation and waiver run on the familiar model: an available defence omitted from a first motion is generally foreclosed.

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

How Maine compares

A short checklist

1. Calendar 20 days from service of the summons, complaint and electronic service notice — and note the obligation is to serve.
2. If you were served outside the continental United States or Canada, you have 50 days.
3. A Rule 12 motion suspends the deadline, but a denial leaves only 10 days from notice. Draft the answer first.
4. Raise your Rule 12 defences together. Omitted ones that were available are generally foreclosed.
5. If this is a foreclosure or a consumer debt case, check who entered the default. The clerk cannot; only the court can.
6. Watch for the Rule 54(c) ceiling. A default judgment follows what the complaint demanded.
7. Move before judgment if you can — relief from an entry of default is materially easier than relief from a judgment under Rule 60(b).

Where these rules live

• Me. R. Civ. P. 4 — Process
• Me. R. Civ. P. 5 — Service, Filing, and Form of Pleadings and Other Documents
• Me. R. Civ. P. 6 — Time
• Me. R. Civ. P. 8 — General Rules of Pleading
• Me. R. Civ. P. 12 — Defenses and Objections
• Me. R. Civ. P. 15 — Amended and Supplemental Pleadings
• Me. R. Civ. P. 55 — Default
• Me. R. Civ. P. 60 — Relief from Judgment or Order

This page explains what the rules say. It isn't legal advice, and the statutory requirements that apply to Maine foreclosure and debt collection actions are outside what this page covers.