Served with a lawsuit in Peru: how many days do you have to respond?

The deadline depends on the type of proceeding

The Código Procesal Civil does not have one deadline for answering a lawsuit. It has a different one for each type of proceeding (vía procesal), and the shortest is five days.

The sumarísimo is the fastest. Article 554 says:

“Al admitir la demanda, el Juez concederá al demandado cinco días para que la conteste.”

(“When admitting the claim, the judge will give the defendant five days to answer it.”)

To know which deadline applies to you, you need to know which type of proceeding your case is in. If that is not clear from what you were served, ask at the court or a lawyer the same day.

How the deadline is counted

Article 147 sets two rules:

“El plazo se cuenta desde el día siguiente de notificada la resolución que lo fija y, cuando es común, desde la última notificación. No se consideran para el cómputo los días inhábiles.”

In plain terms: the day you were served does not count, and non-business days do not count either. Day one is the first business day after service.

These deadlines cannot be stretched by agreement. Article 146 says the Code’s deadlines are peremptory (perentorios) and the parties cannot extend them. If the plaintiff tells you on the phone there is “no rush”, that does not stop the clock.

What your answer must say

Article 442 sets out what the answer (contestación) must contain. The key points:

• Respond to each fact in the claim. Inciso 2 warns that silence, an evasive answer or a blanket denial can be taken by the judge as an admission that the facts are true.
• Clearly admit or deny the documents attributed to you. Silence here can also be taken as an admission.
• Set out the facts of your defence precisely, in order and clearly.
• Offer your evidence.
• Carry your signature and your lawyer’s (inciso 6).

Denying everything in one line is not a defence. The judge can read it as accepting what the claim says.

If it is an enforcement proceeding

If you are sued on an enforceable title (título ejecutivo), such as a protested bill of exchange or promissory note, you do not get a claim to “answer”. You get an enforcement order (mandato ejecutivo), and your defence is called an objection (contradicción). Article 690-D says:

“Dentro de cinco días de notificado el mandato ejecutivo, el ejecutado puede contradecir la ejecución y proponer excepciones procesales o defensas previas.”

The objection can only rest on three grounds: the obligation is not due or not a fixed sum, the document is formally void or forged (or an incomplete negotiable instrument was filled in against what was agreed), or the obligation has already been extinguished. Evidence goes in the same filing, and only a party’s statement, documents and expert evidence are admitted.

What happens if you do not answer

The case does not stop. Article 458 says:

“Si transcurrido el plazo para contestar la demanda, el demandado a quien se le ha notificado válidamente ésta no lo hace, se le declarará rebelde.”

(“If the deadline to answer passes and the defendant, validly served, has not answered, he will be declared in default.”)

Default (rebeldía) has serious effects on how the judge weighs the facts in the claim. We explain them on the page about default in a civil case.

If you know you owe the money

Answering does not always mean fighting. Article 413 says that “también está exonerado quien reconoce o se allana a la demanda dentro del plazo para contestarla”: whoever admits the claim, or accepts it (se allana), within the time to answer is also exempted. That article governs exemptions from court costs (costas y costos). If you are going to admit the debt, doing it within the deadline changes what you end up paying. See court costs in a civil case.

What this page does not cover

We do not say which type of proceeding applies to which lawsuit: that depends on the claim and the amount, and those rules are not reviewed here. We also do not cover how service must be carried out, or the deadline for procedural objections in a sumarísimo case. If you have been served and do not know which case yours is, the most useful step is to take what you received to a lawyer the same day.