One question, then the deadline that applies to you and the forms.
If you are the one owed money, this guide is the wrong way round —
use the suing-over-money guide instead.
If this is an eviction case, use the
eviction guide. Landlord/tenant cases run on a different
track and nothing below about answers or default applies to them.
If the debts have gone past one judgment, the
Chapter 7 guide covers what bankruptcy erases and what it
never touches — filing generally stops most private-creditor wage
garnishments, though the automatic stay has exceptions (including
limits after repeat filings), and it does not erase child support,
most taxes, or student loans.
The deadline is 35 days, and it starts when service is complete
In the Special Civil Part, a defendant served with process — inside
New Jersey or outside it — must serve an answer, including any
counterclaim, within 35 days after completion of service
(R. 6:3-1(1)). Not 20, not 30. The clock runs from when service was
completed, not from the date printed on the complaint and not from the
day you happened to read it.
Doing nothing is the one move with no recovery built into it.
Silence does not make the case go away; it hands the other side a
judgment without anyone examining whether they can prove the debt.
If you have no lawyer, showing up counts
A rule most people never hear: an appearance by a defendant appearing
pro se shall be deemed an answer (R. 6:3-1(5)). If you are
representing yourself, the rules do not require you to produce a
correctly drafted pleading before you are allowed to defend the case.
Read that as relief from the form, not from the clock. The 35 days
still govern. It means the thing standing between you and defending
yourself is not your ability to write a legal document — so not knowing
how to draft an answer is not a reason to let the deadline pass.
In Small Claims there is no answer to file at all
No answer is permitted in Small Claims cases, in summary landlord/tenant
actions, or in summary ejectment and unlawful entry and detainer actions
(R. 6:3-1(6)). Small Claims cases are disposed of on the return day
— the date on your summons — unless the court adjourns them (R. 6:11).
You go, on that date, with your evidence. Filing paper instead of
appearing is the error to avoid here.
Which section you are in depends on the amount: Small Claims covers
claims up to $5,000; the Special Civil Part proper covers amounts in
controversy up to $20,000 (R. 6:1-2(a)(1)–(2)). And if you have a
counterclaim worth more than the Small Claims limit, filing it moves
the whole case up into the Special Civil Part proper on payment of the
fees (R. 6:11) — your own claim is not capped by the section they
chose to sue you in.
If the plaintiff bought your debt, they have to prove the chain
Most of the 358,995 contract suits filed in New Jersey in the last court
year are collection cases, and many are brought by companies that bought
the account rather than the business you originally dealt with. The
rules put a specific burden on them. To take a default judgment on an
assigned claim, the plaintiff must submit a separate affidavit
certifying with specificity: the name of the original creditor, the
last four digits of the original account number, the last three digits
of your Social Security number if known, the current owner of the debt,
and the full chain of assignment (R. 6:6-3(a)). The affidavit must
be sworn no more than 30 days before it is presented, and it must state
the source of the address used to serve you.
That last requirement matters more than it looks. If you were served at
an address you had not lived at for years, the affidavit has to say
where that address came from.
Default and default judgment are two different things
Default is entered by the clerk when you fail to appear, plead or
otherwise defend (R. 6:6-2). It is a bookkeeping step, not a decision
about who owes what.
While it is only an entry of default, there is an unusually cheap way
out: it is removed automatically by the clerk if, within 30 days
of its entry, you file a written application with your adversary’s
written consent endorsed on it, together with your answer and the filing
fee (R. 6:6-2). That requires the other side to agree — but asking
costs nothing, and opposing counsel often prefers a decided case to a
judgment they will have to defend later.
Default judgment is the money judgment that follows. Undoing that is
a motion under R. 4:50-1, whose grounds are: mistake, inadvertence,
surprise or excusable neglect; newly discovered evidence; fraud,
misrepresentation or other misconduct by the other side; the judgment is
void; the judgment has been satisfied or released; or any other reason
justifying relief.
A motion to vacate an entry of default must come with your answer
(or a dispositive motion) and the filing fee for it — and R. 4:43-3
says that fee shall be returned if the motion to vacate the entry of
default is denied. Read that provision closely before relying on it:
it is written about vacating the entry. Once a default judgment
has been entered, the court sets it aside “in accordance with Rule
4:50” (R. 4:43-3), and the rule does not repeat the fee-return
promise there. Ask the clerk what a motion in your posture costs and
whether anything is refundable.
They cannot take more than 10% of your wages
A wage execution “shall not exceed 10%” of wages, earnings or salary
owed to a judgment debtor, unless your income exceeds 250% of the
poverty level for your family size, in which case the court may order
a larger percentage (N.J.S.A. 2A:17-56(a)). The 25% figure people
repeat applies to wage executions filed by the State under a
different subsection — not to a private creditor collecting a credit-card
judgment.
You get notice before it starts, and 10 days after service of that
notice to tell the Special Civil Part office and the creditor, in
writing, why the order should not be entered (R. 6:7-3(a)).
Missing those 10 days does not end it. You may object to a wage
execution, or ask that the amount withheld be reduced, at any time
after the order is issued, by filing a written statement with the
clerk and copying the creditor — and a hearing must be held within
seven days of that filing. If your objection reaches the clerk after
the order has issued, all money your employer sends is held until
the court rules (R. 4:59-1(e)).
A frozen bank account is not the end of the case either
Some money is exempt from levy under state and federal law. If a court
orders a levy released because the funds were exempt, the order must
require the bank to refund every fee you were charged because of the
levy — and if the court finds the creditor knew or should have known the
funds were exempt, it can order that creditor to reimburse you
(R. 6:6-6(c)).
Since 1 September 2024 there is more. If you appear in court to
object to a levy and the judge finds your objection rests on any
R. 4:50-1 ground for vacating the judgment, the court shall
immediately release all exempt funds to you, and may hold the rest
for 20 days so you can file a motion to vacate the default judgment —
and if you file it, the hold continues until that motion is decided
(R. 6:6-6(e)). Objecting to the levy can be the door back into the
case itself. Forms for levy-exemption claims are available at the
clerk’s office (R. 6:6-6(d)).
Rule text as published by the New Jersey Judiciary; N.J.S.A. 2A:17-56
as of the 2025 revision. Monetary limits under R. 6:1-2 were last raised
effective 1 July 2022 and are revised periodically — confirm with the
clerk. Filing fees change and are not stated here; ask the clerk, and
ask about a fee waiver before paying if the fee is a hardship.
This is not legal advice, and it cannot tell you whether you owe the
money. Your answers are encrypted while you work and erased after 30
minutes of inactivity.