How to Respond to a Lawsuit in Indiana: 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. Indiana has no mandatory statewide answer form, so you type the answer on standard pleading paper with the court, parties, and cause number set out in the caption under Indiana Trial Rule 10(A). The legal-aid site indianalegalhelp.org publishes a generic answer template you can adapt.

Serve and file your written answer within 20 calendar days of service under Indiana Trial Rule 6(C), or within 23 days if the summons was served by United States mail under Trial Rule 6(E). File it with the clerk of the Circuit or Superior Court named in the summons, serve a copy on the plaintiff or the plaintiff's attorney under Trial Rule 5, and file a certificate of service. There is no statewide fee to file an answer, though a counterclaim requires a civil filing fee of roughly $157 to $232.

Under Indiana Trial Rule 55(A), a party who has failed to plead or otherwise comply with the rules may be defaulted, and the court can enter a default judgment for what the complaint requests. You can file a Motion for Relief from Judgment or Order under Trial Rule 60(B), and for grounds such as mistake, surprise, or excusable neglect the motion must be filed within a reasonable time and not more than one year after the judgment. Act quickly, because the one-year outer limit is firm.

Often yes. Parties commonly agree in writing to extend the response deadline, and you can ask the court to enlarge the time under Indiana Trial Rule 6(B). Filing certain pre-answer motions, such as a motion to dismiss under Trial Rule 12(B), can also pause the answer clock until the court rules. Get any extension in writing or on the record, because the default clock keeps running until the plaintiff agrees, the court grants more time, or you file a response.

There is no statewide fee just to file an answer in Indiana, but if you file a counterclaim or otherwise owe a civil filing fee, you can ask the court to waive it. The request is made on a Verified Motion for Fee Waiver, and eligibility is based on indigency or inability to pay under Indiana Code 33-37-3-2. Filing the waiver motion lets you proceed without paying the fee while the court decides eligibility.

Yes. Indiana treats insufficient service of process as a defense you can raise by motion under Trial Rule 12(B) or in your answer. If service did not follow the rules, the 20-day or 23-day answer period may not have started to run. Raise a service problem promptly rather than ignoring the case, because ignoring the summons still risks a default judgment under Trial Rule 55(A).

Indiana Trial Rule 8(C) lists affirmative defenses you can plead, including statute of limitations, payment, release, accord and satisfaction, fraud, estoppel, waiver, res judicata, and discharge in bankruptcy. To assert your own claim against the plaintiff, you file a counterclaim under Trial Rule 13. A counterclaim arising out of the same transaction or occurrence is compulsory and can be lost if not pleaded; other claims are permissive.

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 six-year statute of limitations for written contracts under Indiana Code 34-11-2-9 and whether the collector validated the debt under the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, 15 U.S.C. 1692g. Note that debt claims at or under the small claims cap are often filed on the small claims docket, where no written answer is filed and you instead appear on the trial or return date in the notice of claim.

A respondent served with a dissolution petition and summons generally has 20 calendar days to serve a responsive pleading, or 23 days if the summons was served by United States mail, because dissolution proceeds under the Rules of Trial Procedure and Trial Rule 6(C) supplies the period. You file your response with the Circuit or Superior Court named in the summons. Missing the window can let the case proceed by default and let the court decide property, support, and parenting issues without your input.