You've Been Served With a Civil Lawsuit. Now What?
Updated: 7 days ago
A process server hands you a stack of paper. On top is a summons; behind it is a complaint with your name in the caption. Nobody arrests you, nothing happens that afternoon, and the whole thing has a strange feeling of unreality to it.
That feeling is the problem. A civil lawsuit does not force you to act. It just quietly runs a clock, and if the clock runs out, you lose — not on the merits, but by default.
Here is what to do in the first few days.
1. Write down the date you were served
Not the date on the complaint. Not the date it was filed. The date the papers were physically handed to you or otherwise served.
Every deadline in the case counts from that date, and people misremember it within a week. Write it on the front page of the summons and put the stack somewhere you will not lose it.
2. Know how long you actually have
In Georgia, the deadline depends on which court is named at the top of the summons:
Superior Court or State Court — 30 calendar days from service to file your answer, under O.C.G.A. § 9-11-12(a).
Magistrate Court (claims up to $15,000) — also 30 days, under O.C.G.A. § 15-10-43(c). Magistrate Court often provides a fill-in answer form; Superior and State Court do not.
Dispossessory (eviction) — 7 calendar days, under O.C.G.A. § 44-7-51(b). Weekends count. This one catches people constantly.
Federal court — 21 days after service, under Rule 12(a) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.
Calendar the deadline the day you are served, and back it up with a reminder a week out. Filing a motion to dismiss instead of an answer can change the timing, but that is a strategic decision to make with a lawyer, not a reason to let the date slide.
3. Understand what default means
If you do not answer in time, you are in default automatically. Nobody has to ask the court to declare it.
Georgia gives you one meaningful cushion: under O.C.G.A. § 9-11-55(a), you can open a default as a matter of right within 15 days afterward by filing your answer and paying the court costs. After those 15 days, opening the default requires the court's permission, a showing of a proper excuse, a meritorious defense, and other conditions — and the judge does not have to grant it.
A default judgment is a real judgment. It can be enforced through garnishment of wages and bank accounts, and it can be recorded as a lien against property. "I never responded because I didn't think it was legitimate" is not a defense to any of that.
4. Call your insurance carrier immediately
This is the step people skip, and it is often worth more than everything else combined.
If the claim involves a car wreck, an injury on your property, a dog bite, a business dispute, or professional services you provided, there may be a policy that covers it — auto, homeowners, renters, general liability, professional liability, or an umbrella policy sitting on top of them. Where coverage applies, the insurer typically has a duty to defend, which means they hire and pay for the lawyer.
Policies also require prompt notice. Sit on the lawsuit for three weeks and you risk giving the carrier a reason to deny coverage on late-notice grounds. Report it, in writing, and keep a copy of the report.
5. Do not do any of these things
Do not call the plaintiff to talk it out. Anything you say can be used, and a friendly call after suit is filed rarely helps.
Do not post about it. Not on Facebook, not in a group chat, not in a review. Opposing counsel will find it and print it out.
Do not delete anything. Once you know litigation exists, you have an obligation to preserve relevant records — texts, emails, photos, invoices, camera footage, calendars. Deleting them can result in sanctions or an instruction to the jury that the missing evidence was against you. Turn off any auto-delete settings on messaging apps and security cameras.
Do not assume bad service means you can ignore it. If you were served improperly, that is an argument to raise with the court. It is not permission to skip the deadline.
6. Gather your side of the story now
While the case is fresh, put together everything related to the dispute: contracts, receipts, invoices, correspondence, photographs, medical records, repair estimates, names and contact information for witnesses. Write out your own chronology of what happened and when.
A lawyer working from an organized file in week one can do a great deal more than one handed a shoebox in month four.
7. Watch for the claims you might lose by not raising them
Two things have to be dealt with in your first response, not later:
Certain defenses are waived if omitted. Lack of personal jurisdiction, improper venue, insufficient process, and insufficient service of process all have to be raised at the outset under O.C.G.A. § 9-11-12(b).
Compulsory counterclaims. Under O.C.G.A. § 9-11-13, a claim of your own that arises out of the same transaction or occurrence as the plaintiff's claim generally has to be brought in this case. If you do not raise it, you can lose it permanently.
Other defenses — statute of limitations, payment, release, accord and satisfaction, discharge in bankruptcy, res judicata — belong in the answer as well.
8. If the same facts could also be a crime, stop and get advice first
This deserves its own heading, because the mistake is expensive and quiet.
Some civil cases run alongside a criminal investigation, or could trigger one: a serious wreck involving alcohol, an allegation of fraud or theft from an employer, an assault claim, a business dispute with an accusation of misappropriation behind it. In those cases, the ordinary machinery of civil litigation — a sworn answer, interrogatories, a deposition — asks you to make statements under oath about the very conduct a prosecutor might be looking at.
You retain your Fifth Amendment privilege in a civil case. But unlike in a criminal trial, invoking it in civil litigation can allow the jury to draw an adverse inference against you, so the decision has real costs on both sides. Whether to invoke, whether to seek a stay of the civil case while the criminal exposure resolves, and how to answer written discovery in the meantime are decisions that need a lawyer looking at both sides of the problem before the first pleading gets filed.
9. Talk to a lawyer well before day 30
Thirty days sounds like plenty. It is not, once you account for finding a lawyer, getting them the file, letting them investigate, and giving them time to draft. Aim to have counsel involved within the first week.
Even if you ultimately intend to resolve the matter yourself, an early consultation tells you what the exposure is, whether insurance should be covering it, and what you cannot afford to get wrong.
McIlvaine Law Group, 5 Saint Andrews Court, Brunswick, Georgia 31520. Call (912) 275-8014 or email monica@mcilvainelaw.net.
This article is general information about Georgia civil procedure. It is not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Deadlines and procedures vary by court and by case type, and the facts of your matter control. Consult a lawyer about your specific situation.
