Default if no response

A default is when a judge says someone has failed to respond to a court case by the deadline. After a judge finds someone in default, that person cannot participate in the case. The judge can sign final orders and hold hearings without notice to the defaulted person.

You can get a default order if all of these are true:

• You filed papers to start your court case (usually a Summons and Petition)
• You properly served the person/s on the other side of your case (the “other party” or “other parties”)
• The other party did not file a Response by the legal deadline

The deadline to respond to a court case depends on how and where the other party was served. Generally, the response deadline is:

• 20 days after personal service in Washington state
• 60 days after personal service outside Washington
• 60 days after service by publication
• 90 days after service by mail

Military service 

There are special rules for defaulting active-duty members of the military, and their dependents, because military service may make it hard for them to participate in a court case. Before you can get a default, you must tell the court if the other party is covered by these special rules. If you don’t know, you must try to find out.

If you don’t know about the other party’s military status, you can look them up on the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA) website and get a report from the Defense Manpower Data Center (DMDC).You must create an account on that website to run a search. (They call it a “record request”.)

If the other party is on active duty, or is a protected dependent, talk to a lawyer for advice on how to proceed. You may have to ask the court to appoint a lawyer for the other party before you can default them.

After a judge signs an order saying the other party is in default, you can finalize your case. The judge can sign final orders and hold hearings without notice to the person who was defaulted.

You must prepare final orders for the judge to sign. The forms you need depend on the type of case you filed. Answer a few questions on our Get family forms tool to get the right forms for your case.

If you have the final orders prepared, you can ask the judge to sign your final orders at the same hearing where you ask for the default. 

When you finalize by default, you cannot ask for anything you didn’t ask for in your petition. 

If you need to change what you’re asking for, you must re-serve the other party with an updated (called an amended) petition (or amended parenting plan or support worksheets, if that’s what you want to change) and give the other party another chance to respond.