How to Respond to a Lawsuit in Arkansas: Answer a Summons (2026)

An answer responds to each numbered paragraph of the complaint by admitting it, denying it, or stating you lack enough information to admit or deny, and then lists your affirmative defenses. Arkansas has no mandatory statewide answer form, so you type the answer on pleading paper with the court, the parties, and the case number in the caption under Ark. R. Civ. P. 10(a). Common affirmative defenses include the statute of limitations, payment, accord and satisfaction, release, and res judicata under Rule 8(c).

If you missed the answer deadline and a default judgment was entered, you can file a Motion to Set Aside Default Judgment under Ark. R. Civ. P. 55(c). The court can set the judgment aside for mistake, inadvertence, surprise, or excusable neglect, because the judgment is void, or for fraud. There is no fixed day count, but you should file before the judgment becomes final, because relief is harder to obtain as time passes.

Sometimes. Parties often agree in writing to extend the answer period, and you can ask the court for more time. Certain defendants get a longer statutory period: a defendant served by warning order has 30 days from the first publication, and a defendant incarcerated in Arkansas has 60 days to answer under the Rules of Civil Procedure. Get any extension in writing, because the default clock keeps running until the plaintiff agrees, the court grants more time, or you file your answer.

Filing an answer in Arkansas generally carries no filing fee unless you assert a counterclaim. If a fee does apply and you cannot afford it, you can file a Petition for Leave to Proceed In Forma Pauperis asking the court to waive it. Eligibility is based on indigency, such as receiving means-tested public assistance or having income at or below 125% of the federal poverty level. The official petition is available from the Arkansas Judiciary forms library.

Yes. Insufficiency of service of process is a recognized defense under Ark. R. Civ. P. 12(b). You can raise lack of personal jurisdiction or defective service in your answer or by motion rather than ignoring the case. If service was defective, the time to answer may not have started to run. Raise a service problem promptly, because ignoring the summons still risks a default judgment under Rule 55(a).

Common affirmative defenses include the statute of limitations, accord and satisfaction, payment, release, discharge in bankruptcy, statute of frauds, res judicata, fraud, and waiver under Ark. R. Civ. P. 8(c). To assert your own claims against the plaintiff, you file a counterclaim. Under Rule 13(a), a counterclaim is compulsory if it arises out of the same transaction or occurrence as the plaintiff's claim, so raise it with your answer or you can lose the right to bring it.

Respond the same way as any civil complaint: file a timely answer that admits or denies each allegation and raises your defenses. In debt cases, check the five-year statute of limitations for written contracts under Ark. Code Ann. § 16-56-111 and whether the collector validated the debt under the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1692g. Do not ignore the summons, because silence leads to a default judgment for the full amount claimed. Attorney review of a debt-collection answer is available as an option.

A defendant served with a complaint for divorce or dissolution has 30 days to file an answer, because Arkansas domestic relations cases follow the 30-day answer time in Ark. R. Civ. P. 12(a)(1). You file your answer with the clerk of the Circuit Court named in the summons. A defendant incarcerated in Arkansas has 60 days. Missing the window can let the case proceed by default and let the court decide property, support, and custody issues without your input.