How to Respond to a Lawsuit in West Virginia: 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. West Virginia has no mandatory statewide form for a general civil answer, so type the answer following the caption rules in Rule of Civil Procedure 10(a), with the court, parties, and case number in the caption. Magistrate Court offers optional answer form SCA-M225.

File your written answer within 30 calendar days of service in Circuit Court under Rule of Civil Procedure 12(a)(1)(A), or within 20 calendar days in Magistrate Court under Magistrate Court Rule 4(b)(1). File it with the clerk of the court named in the summons and serve a copy on the plaintiff or the plaintiff's attorney under Rule 5(b). There is no fee to file an answer unless it includes a counterclaim, cross-claim, or third-party complaint.

Under West Virginia Rule of Civil Procedure 55(a), when a defendant fails to plead or otherwise defend, the clerk shall enter the party's default, opening the door to a default judgment for what the complaint requests. You can file a Motion to Set Aside Default or Default Judgment under Rule 60(b)(1) for mistake, inadvertence, surprise, or excusable neglect. The motion must be made within a reasonable time, and for those grounds no more than one year under Rule 60(c)(1), so act quickly.

Often yes. Parties commonly agree in writing to extend the response deadline, and you can ask the court to enlarge the time. Filing certain pre-answer motions under Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b), such as a motion to dismiss, 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 fee just to file an answer in West Virginia unless it includes a counterclaim, cross-claim, or third-party complaint, which carries a $200 fee. If you owe a court fee and cannot pay it, you can file the Financial Affidavit and Application for Waiver of Fees, Costs, or Security (Form SCA-C&M201). Eligibility is based on financial inability to pay, with income at or below the court's guidelines, and filing the application lets you proceed while the court decides.

Yes. West Virginia treats insufficiency of service of process as a defense you can raise by motion under Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b) or in your answer. If service did not follow the rules, the time to answer may not have started to run. Raise a service problem promptly rather than ignoring the case, because ignoring the summons still risks the clerk entering your default under Rule 55(a).

West Virginia Rule of Civil Procedure 8(c) lists affirmative defenses you can plead, including accord and satisfaction, arbitration and award, assumption of risk, discharge in bankruptcy, duress, estoppel, fraud, illegality, laches, payment, release, res judicata, statute of frauds, statute of limitations, and waiver. To assert your own claim against the plaintiff, you file a counterclaim. Under Rule 13(a), a counterclaim arising out of the same transaction or occurrence is compulsory and can be lost if not pleaded in your answer.

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 statute of limitations, which West Virginia sets at ten years for written contracts under West Virginia Code 55-2-6, 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.

A respondent served with a dissolution petition and summons has 30 calendar days to file an answer with the circuit clerk and serve a copy on the petitioner under Family Court Rule 9(c), which adopts the period in Rule 12 of the Rules of Civil Procedure. You file your response in the Family Court named in the summons. Missing the 30-day window can let the case proceed by default and let the court decide property, support, and custody issues without your input.