Served With Small Claims Papers in Delaware: What to Do First

Read Everything Before You React

A constable just handed you papers, or a certified mail envelope arrived with a green card to sign. Your stomach drops. Before you call the person suing you, before you start drafting an angry text, sit down and read every page in the packet.

Delaware civil complaints in the Justice of the Peace Court typically include:

• The Summons — Identifies the court, the case number, the parties, and your response deadline.
• The Complaint (Form CF01) — Explains what the plaintiff claims you did and how much money they want.
• A blank Answer form (Civil Form 07 / CF07) — The form you'll fill out to respond.

Look at the case caption on the Summons. It tells you which JP Court location has your case (there are courts in Wilmington, New Castle, Dover, Georgetown, and other locations across Delaware's three counties) and whether the claim is classified as Debt, Trespass, or Replevin.

Verify the Lawsuit Is Real

Scam lawsuits exist. Before you spend time and energy responding, confirm the case is legitimate:

1. Go to the Delaware Judiciary website (courts.delaware.gov) and find the contact information for the specific JP Court listed on your summons. Don't call any number printed on informal cover letters.
2. Call the clerk's office and verify the case number, the parties' names, and the filing date.
3. Check that any payment instructions reference the "Justice of the Peace Court" — not a wire transfer, Venmo, or some third-party payment app.

Note that a missing online record doesn't mean the case is fake. Paper filings and recent constable returns can take several days to appear in the court's electronic docket.

Check Whether It's a Consumer Debt Case

Read the complaint carefully and identify who is suing you. If the plaintiff is a credit card company, collection agency, debt buyer, or personal loan servicer, the case involves consumer debt collection — and your defense options are different from a standard civil dispute.

Consumer debt defendants should contact free legal aid immediately:

• Delaware Legal Help Link (delegalhelplink.org) — Central intake for civil legal aid
• Legal Services Corporation of Delaware — (302) 575-0408 (Wilmington) or (302) 734-8820 (Dover)
• Community Legal Aid Society (CLASI) — (302) 575-0660 (Wilmington)

For non-consumer disputes — a contractor billing dispute, a landlord-tenant damage claim, a car sale gone wrong — the rest of this guide applies.

Mark Your 15-Day Deadline

The single most important thing to do after reading the papers: calculate your response deadline. In Delaware JP Court, you have exactly 15 calendar days from the date you received the papers to file your Answer with the court. Miss that window and the plaintiff can obtain a default judgment against you.

Count Day 1 as the day after service. Count every calendar day, including weekends and holidays. If day 15 falls on a weekend or court holiday, the deadline extends to the next business day.

Write the deadline on your calendar, set a phone reminder for three days before, and treat it as immovable.

Preserve Your Evidence

Save the original envelope and any certified mail tracking receipts — the postmark establishes your service date if there's ever a dispute about when the clock started. Keep the constable's card or delivery slip too.

Then start gathering evidence related to the actual dispute: contracts, invoices, text messages, photos, emails, estimates. Don't delete anything, even messages that seem unfavorable. Put everything in one folder.

File Your Answer

Download Civil Form 07 (CF07) from the Delaware Courts website or use the blank copy from your service packet. The form has two main choices — dispute the claim and request a trial, or admit the claim. In a debt action, you can also request a Bill of Particulars as part of the trial option.

If you're responding as a business (LLC, corporation, partnership), you'll need a Certificate of Representation (Form 50) and a $20 registration fee filed with the Chief Magistrate before the court accepts your Answer.

Filing the Answer costs $0. Submit it in person at the clerk's window, by mail (allow time — it must arrive within 15 days, not just be postmarked), or through eFlex.

Our Delaware Small Claims Response Guide covers the full defendant workflow — from decoding your summons to filing your Answer to preparing for the hearing — with deadline worksheets and form-by-form instructions.

See more Delaware guides →