In a Texas civil lawsuit, an original answer with a general denial is the defendant’s baseline response: a written pleading, filed under Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 92, in which you deny “all matters pleaded by the adverse party” in a single sentence and force the plaintiff to prove every element of the case at trial.1Texas Courts. Texas Rules of Civil Procedure – Rule 92 Getting it on file by the deadline is the single most important thing you do early in the case, because a missed deadline can end the lawsuit against you before you ever speak to a judge.
When Your Answer Is Due
Under Rule 99, your written answer is due by 10:00 a.m. on the Monday after 20 days have passed from the date you were served.2South Texas College of Law. Texas Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 99 – Issuance and Form of Citation Count from the day the papers were served on you, not the day the plaintiff filed the petition and not the day you got around to reading it. If day 20 lands on a Wednesday, the answer is due the following Monday at 10:00 a.m.
If you do not file by then, the plaintiff can ask the court to enter a default judgment. Rule 239 allows the plaintiff to take judgment against you any time after your answer was due, as long as you still have not filed one.3South Texas College of Law. Texas Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 239 – Judgment by Default A default gives the plaintiff everything they asked for in the petition, entered on their terms, with no chance for you to present your side.
Undoing a default is possible but hard. A motion for new trial must be filed within 30 days of the judgment being signed, and the court applies the Craddock test: your failure to answer was not intentional or the product of conscious indifference, you have a meritorious defense, and a new trial would not unduly delay or prejudice the plaintiff.4Texas Courts. Texas Rules of Civil Procedure – Rule 329b After 30 days, the remaining path is a separate bill-of-review lawsuit with a steeper standard. Filing on time is dramatically cheaper than any of that.
What a General Denial Does
A general denial is what it sounds like: you deny everything the plaintiff alleged, in one broad stroke, without explaining why the allegations are wrong or laying out your own version of the facts. Rule 92 provides that a general denial puts into issue all of the plaintiff’s allegations except those that must be denied under oath.5South Texas College of Law. Texas Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 92 – General Denial The practical effect is that the plaintiff keeps the burden of proof on every claim. If they cannot support an allegation with evidence, they lose on that point.
That single sentence is the core of most defendants’ original answers. It is not, however, the whole answer for most cases.
What a General Denial Will Not Cover
Rule 93 lists matters that must be denied under oath in a verified pleading. A general denial has no effect on any of them. If you fail to raise these points in a sworn denial, the court treats the plaintiff’s allegations on those points as admitted. The items that come up most often:
- Lack of capacity to sue or be sued in the capacity alleged.
- Execution of a written instrument. If the plaintiff claims you signed a contract, promissory note, or other document, you must deny that signature under oath or the court treats it as genuine.
- Genuineness of an endorsement or assignment. If someone is suing as the assignee of a debt or contract, you must challenge the assignment under oath.
- Lack or failure of consideration.
- Another suit pending in Texas on the same dispute.
- Corporate existence of a party.
The Rule 93 list also includes denials of partnership status, usury, and failure to give required notice of a claim, among others.6South Texas College of Law. Texas Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 93 – Certain Pleas to Be Verified This is where self-represented defendants often stumble. If a plaintiff sues you on a contract you never signed, a general denial alone will not put that signature in dispute. You need a separate sworn statement saying you did not sign it. Skipping that step can quietly concede a factual issue you fully intended to contest.
Affirmative Defenses You Have to Raise Now
A general denial says the plaintiff has not proved the case. An affirmative defense says something different: even if everything the plaintiff claims is true, you still win because of an additional fact. Rule 94 requires you to raise affirmative defenses specifically in your answer or you waive them, and the rule lists roughly twenty of them, including statute of limitations, release, payment, fraud, waiver, and estoppel.7South Texas College of Law. Texas Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 94 – Affirmative Defenses
The burden shifts on these. You are the one who must present evidence supporting them. Take a breach-of-contract suit filed after the limitations period ran out: a general denial by itself will not raise that issue. You have to plead statute of limitations as an affirmative defense in your original answer. Leave it out and the court can refuse to consider it later, even if the evidence clearly shows the claim is time-barred.
The safer approach is to include every affirmative defense that might plausibly apply when you first file. Dropping one later is easy. Adding one later requires a court-approved amendment.
Counterclaims and Cross-Claims to Include
Your original answer is also the place to assert claims of your own. Rule 97 draws a sharp line between counterclaims you must raise and counterclaims you may raise.8Texas Courts. Texas Rules of Civil Procedure – Rule 97
A compulsory counterclaim is any claim you have against the plaintiff that arises out of the same transaction or event as the plaintiff’s lawsuit. You must include it. If you leave it out, you risk losing the right to bring it as a separate case later. A permissive counterclaim is any other claim you have against the plaintiff, even one unrelated to the current dispute. You can include it but are not required to.
If there are multiple defendants, you can also file a cross-claim against a co-defendant, so long as it arises from the same transaction or event. A common example: the plaintiff sues two drivers after a collision, and one driver blames the other. That blame goes in the answer as a cross-claim.
If a compulsory counterclaim gets missed through oversight or excusable neglect, Rule 97 allows you to add it later by amendment with the court’s permission. “I forgot” is a harder sell than getting it right the first time.
If You Want to Challenge Jurisdiction, File That First
If you believe the Texas court where you were sued has no personal jurisdiction over you, that objection has to be raised before your answer or any other motion. Rule 120a requires a special appearance, a sworn motion arguing the court lacks authority over you.9Texas Courts. Texas Rules of Civil Procedure – Rule 120a
The filing order is unforgiving. A special appearance must come first, before a motion to transfer venue, a general denial, or anything else. You can include all of those in the same filing, or file the others later, but the special appearance has to be at the front. File anything else first and the court treats that as a general appearance, meaning you have accepted the court’s jurisdiction and lost the right to challenge it.
The special appearance must be supported by affidavits or other evidence, and those affidavits must be served on the other side at least seven days before the hearing. The court resolves the jurisdictional question before anything else moves forward. Participating in discovery, taking depositions, or serving requests for admission does not waive a properly filed special appearance.
Format, Filing, and Serving the Plaintiff
The answer must be in writing, signed by you or your attorney, and must include the case number, court, and the names of the parties. Texas requires attorneys to file documents electronically in courts where e-filing has been mandated, which at this point covers virtually every Texas court handling civil cases.10eFileTexas. Texas Rules of Civil Procedure – Rule 21 Self-represented parties can e-file in most courts but are generally not required to.
Filing with the clerk is only half the job. You also have to serve a copy on the plaintiff or the plaintiff’s attorney. Under Rule 21a, if you filed electronically, the e-filing system handles service automatically as long as the other party’s email address is on file. Otherwise, you can serve the document by personal delivery, mail, commercial delivery service, fax, or email.11South Texas College of Law. Texas Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 21a – Methods of Service
Amending Your Answer Later
The original answer is not set in stone. As discovery moves and new information surfaces, you can amend to add affirmative defenses, raise new counterclaims, or correct mistakes. Rule 63 allows amendments freely, with one timing rule: any amendment filed within seven days of trial requires the court’s permission.12Texas Courts. Texas Rules of Civil Procedure – Rule 63 Courts generally grant leave unless the other side shows the late change would cause unfair surprise.
That flexibility is real, but relying on it is a gamble. The further along the case gets, the harder it is to convince a judge that a new defense is not just a tactical afterthought. Load your original answer with every defense and counterclaim you can reasonably identify at the outset, and treat later amendments as cleanup rather than as your main plan.