What Happens If a Florida Lawsuit Is Not Answered?

Unless a different time is prescribed in a Florida statute, Rule 1.140(a)(1) requires a defendant to serve an answer within 20 days after service of original process and the initial pleading, or not later than the date fixed in a notice by publication. Under Rule 1.140(a)(2), the state of Florida, an agency of the state or an officer or employee of the state sued in an official capacity must serve an answer within 40 days after service. When the suit is brought under section 768.28, the Department of Financial Services or the defendant state agency has 30 days from the date of service.

Rule 1.500 provides two kinds of default. When the defendant has failed to file or serve any document in the action, the plaintiff may move for a default after the response time expires, and the clerk must enter it. When the defendant has filed something but has failed to plead or otherwise defend, the court may enter the default on motion.

Rule 1.500(c) allows a party to plead or otherwise defend at any time before a default is entered. After a default, the court may enter a final judgment at any time.

To determine the amount of damages, the court may receive affidavits, make references or conduct hearings as it deems necessary. No judgment may be entered against a minor or incompetent person unless that person is represented in the action by a general guardian, committee, conservator or other representative who has appeared in it, or unless the court has made an order under Rule 1.210(b) providing that no representative is necessary.

The court may set aside a default, and a final judgment entered on it may be set aside under Rule 1.540(b). The grounds include mistake, inadvertence, surprise or excusable neglect, newly discovered evidence, fraud, a void judgment, and a judgment that has been satisfied.

The motion must be filed within a reasonable time. A motion based on mistake, inadvertence, surprise or excusable neglect, on newly discovered evidence, or on fraud must be filed not more than 1 year after the judgment.

How a case begins is covered in how a lawsuit is served.