The 120-Day Rule: What You Need to Know

Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.070 (j) says that a complaint has to be served on the defendant within 120 days after it’s filed. If not, the case can be dismissed, but the complaint can be filed again if the statute of limitations hasn’t run out. If there’s a good reason why the complaint wasn’t served in time, the deadline can be extended. This rule was made to keep court cases moving along, and if a complaint is dismissed for not being served on time, it’s like hitting a “reset” button and the plaintiff can try again. In Morales v. Sperry Rand, the Florida Supreme Court ruled that the rule for serving court papers should be enforced strictly. The case involved a situation where the plaintiff’s lawyers waited too long to serve the papers, and the Supreme Court said that this wasn’t good enough. They said that the trial court should look at each case and decide if there’s a good reason for the delay in serving the papers. This means that the trial court has the power to decide if there’s a good excuse for not serving the papers on time. Since the Morales decision, there have been 14 opinions about “good cause.” If the plaintiff tries to serve the defendant within 120 days, the courts are usually okay with it. But if the plaintiff doesn’t even try to serve the defendant, the courts usually dismiss the case. For example, in one case, the plaintiffs said they were still investigating, but the court didn’t buy it. In another case, the plaintiffs waited 330 days to try to serve the defendant, and the court dismissed the case. So basically, if the plaintiff doesn’t try to serve the defendant, the court will probably dismiss the case. In some court cases, a plaintiff can still move forward with their lawsuit even if they didn’t serve the defendant within the required 120 days. This is called “good cause.” Examples of good cause include trying to serve the wrong papers or the wrong person, getting wrong information from the defendant, or trying to serve the defendant but not being successful. In one case, the court found good cause because the plaintiff was in ongoing negotiations with the defendant and didn’t serve them because of that. In Gambino v. The Village of Oakbrook, the plaintiff negotiated with the defendants for a long time after filing the lawsuit. When it became clear that they couldn’t settle the case, the plaintiff tried to serve the defendants. The court found that the plaintiff made a real effort to serve the defendants within the time limit, so the case wasn’t dismissed. It’s important for plaintiffs to make an actual effort to serve the defendants within 120 days of filing the lawsuit. The rule is meant to make sure plaintiffs don’t just file a lawsuit and then do nothing. But if they forget to serve the defendants, the case might be dismissed, although they can still refile the lawsuit if they have time.

Source: https://www.floridabar.org/the-florida-bar-journal/the-120-day-rule-what-you-need-to-know/