Civil Litigation-Response by the Defendant
Once the lawsuit has been filed and the complaint has been properly served, the defendant has a designated period in which to respond. That period of time normally ranges anywhere from twenty to thirty days. The defendant may respond by filing a motion or by filing an answer. The different types of motions that may be filed by the defendant in response to the complaint would be motions raising issues of lack of jurisdiction, failure to properly state a claim, or certain other affirmative defenses.
A motion based upon a lack of jurisdiction is a statement that the court in which the suit was filed does not have jurisdiction—the authority—to hear the claim. Another type of motion that may be filed is a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim, which means that the defendant is saying that even if everything stated in the complaint is true, it still does not constitute a basis for a lawsuit against the defendant.
Other types of affirmative defenses that may be raised through a motion would be such defenses as the statute of limitations, res judicata, release, accord and satisfaction, and several other such defenses. If a statute of limitations defense is raised, the defendant is claiming that your suit was filed too late and is therefore barred by the statute of limitations. If a motion is filed based upon res judicata, the defendant is claiming that this claim has already been adjudicated once and it cannot be litigated again. If the defendant raises the defense of release or accord and satisfaction, there has been some sort of settlement reached in regard to the claim and therefore the reassertion of the claim is barred.
If no motions are filed within the time allowed after service of a complaint, the defendant is to file an answer. That answer is supposed to respond to each of the numbered paragraphs of the complaint so that the plaintiff knows exactly what issues are going to be contested. In addition, the defendant may be called upon to raise any affirmative defenses in that answer. An affirmative defense may be any of the defenses mentioned above that could be raised in the form of a motion or other such defenses that would constitute an automatic bar to the claim asserted.
