Art. 4920 Delay for answering; justice of the peace courts; district courts with concurrent jurisdiction

If you get sued in a justice of the peace court or a district court that shares this kind of case, you have 10 days to file your answer after you're served with the citation. This is the standard deadline for most defendants.

There's one exception. If the citation was served through the secretary of state instead of directly to you, everyone involved in the case gets 15 days to answer instead of 10. This extra time accounts for the additional steps needed when service goes through a state office rather than being handed directly to the person being sued.

The clock starts ticking from the day you're officially served, not from when the lawsuit was filed. Missing this deadline can have serious consequences for your case, so it's important to know exactly when you were served and count the days carefully.