Rule 12.Defenses and Objections — When and How Presented by Pleading or Motion — Motion for Judgment on Pleadings.

Rule 12 starts with deadlines. A defendant generally must answer within twenty days after being served with the summons and complaint, or within twenty days after the last publication if served by a published notice of the court. If the defendant waived formal service under Rule 4(d), the answer is due sixty days after the waiver request was sent — ninety days if the defendant was addressed outside the United States. A party served with a cross-claim answers within twenty days, and a plaintiff replies to a counterclaim within twenty days after the answer is served (or after a court order requiring a reply). Filing certain motions resets these clocks: if the court denies the motion or defers it to trial, the responsive pleading is due within ten days of that ruling; if the court orders a more definite statement, the responsive pleading is due within ten days after the more definite statement is served.

Instead of raising every defense in an answer, a defendant may raise seven specific defenses by motion: lack of subject-matter jurisdiction, lack of personal jurisdiction, improper venue, insufficient process, insufficient service of process, failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted, and failure to join an indispensable party. That sixth defense — failure to state a claim — is what’s commonly called a motion to dismiss. If the motion relies on material outside the pleadings and the court doesn’t exclude it, the motion converts into one for summary judgment under Rule 56, and both sides get a fair chance to submit supporting material. A motion or answer raising the failure-to-state-a-claim defense must include a short, concise statement of its grounds.

The rule also covers judgment on the pleadings (available once pleadings close, and also convertible to summary judgment if outside material comes in), motions for a more definite statement when a pleading is too vague to answer, and motions to strike insufficient defenses or redundant, immaterial, impertinent, or scandalous matter. A party who moves under this rule generally must consolidate every available defense into one motion — raising them piecemeal later is barred, subject to specific exceptions. And a party waives any defense not raised by motion or in the answer, except that failure to state a claim, failure to join an indispensable party, failure to state a legal defense to a claim, and lack of subject-matter jurisdiction survive that waiver and can still be raised later, including at trial.