The Indiana military affidavit

How Indiana handles it

Indiana is the state where the judge does the asking. Ind. Small Claims Rule 10(B), effective January 1, 2011, says that before entering a default judgment the court "shall examine the notice of claim and return thereof and make inquiry, under oath, of those present" to assure itself of four things. The third is the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act: the court must be satisfied either that the defendant is not entitled to the Act's protections against default judgments, or that the plaintiff has filed the affidavit the Act requires, stating whether the defendant is in military service and showing necessary facts, or stating that the plaintiff is unable to determine it. That means a plaintiff standing in an Indiana small claims courtroom can be put under oath and questioned on the point from the bench.

The statewide document that carries the written answer is the Affidavit of Debt, which the Indiana Judicial Branch publishes in two versions from its forms page: Affidavit of Debt in a Small Claim, keyed to Small Claims Rule 2(B)(4), and Affidavit of Debt, keyed to Trial Rule 9.2(A). Both are mostly about the account. They ask whether the plaintiff is the original owner or bought the debt and from whom, the unpaid balance, the last four digits of the account number, the date the account was opened, the date and amount of the last payment, the account type from a list that includes credit card, utilities, medical, services, and a prior judgment, any late fees or interest with start dates, and whether attorney fees are sought.

The military paragraph sits at the end, after a line stating that the plaintiff believes the defendant is not a minor or an incompetent individual. It opens "If the defendant is an individual, plaintiff states and declares that" and offers two boxes. The first is "Defendant is not on active military service," followed by three ruled lines for the facts the statement is based on. The second is the unable-to-determine box. Underneath, the form defines the term: active military service "includes fulltime duty in the military (including the National Guard and reserves) and, for members of the National Guard, service under a call to active service authorized by the President or Secretary of Defense."

Ind. Trial Rule 55(B) carries the same rule up into circuit and superior court. It forbids a default judgment against a person "entitled to the protections against default judgments provided by the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, as amended," unless "the requirements of the Act have been complied with," and then cross-references Small Claims Rule 10(B)(3) so that the two dockets run on one standard. A party who has appeared gets three days' written notice of the application for judgment.

The Indiana Small Claims Manual published by the Indiana Office of Court Services, updated 12/23/2025, tells plaintiffs the same thing in plain words. Its default judgment checklist lists as item four that "Plaintiff must notify the Court whether the Defendant is an active member of the military," prints the Defense Manpower Data Center address https://scra.dmdc.osd.mil/scra/#/home, and then says: "To do this, the Plaintiff may sign affidavits, or in some cases the court may require the Plaintiff to give testimony from the witness stand." The manual also reprints the Affidavit of Debt in its forms appendix.

What trips filers up here

• Both statewide forms carry a duplicated-word error in the second box: "Plaintiff is unable to determine whether or not Defendant is not on active military service military service." The stray double negative makes the box read backwards. Check it if you genuinely cannot determine status, and write the steps you took on an attached page so the record says what you meant.
• Neither form has a checkbox or attachment line for the Defense Manpower Data Center status report, even though the Small Claims Manual sends you to the DMDC site. Attach the certificate as an exhibit and name it in the facts blank.
• The forms and the rules both still cite the old codification: the forms say "50 U.S.C.A. Appx. section 521," Small Claims Rule 10(B)(3) says "50 U.S.C. appx. section 521," and Trial Rule 55(B) says the same. The current section is 50 U.S.C. section 3931.
• Set-aside timing is short and then hard. Small Claims Rule 10(C) lets the court vacate a default judgment within one year for good cause; after that a judgment debtor must file an independent action under Trial Rule 60(B).

Signing it: declaration, no notary

The form ends with "I swear or affirm under the penalties of perjury that the foregoing representations are true," a date line, and a signature of affiant. There is no notary block and no jurat. Ind. Small Claims Rule 10(B)(3) matches that, calling for the affidavit "subscribed and certified or declared to be true under penalty of perjury."

No notary is needed. The signature block is an unsworn declaration under penalty of perjury, which is what 50 U.S.C. § 3931(b)(4) expressly allows. Signing it knowing the military statement is false is still a federal crime, and a state perjury exposure on top.

Getting the military-status answer right

The affidavit is only as good as the search behind it. The Defense Manpower Data Center runs the free lookup that courts and creditors rely on, and since 2026 it requires a free account even for a single record. Our guide to the DMDC SCRA website covers the search itself, what a "no information found" result does and does not prove, and the batch route for high-volume filers. The federal rules behind this form, including what happens when you genuinely cannot determine status, sit on the hub page.

If one was filed against you

A false affidavit is not a technicality. In May 2026 the Justice Department settled with a Florida property manager that swore a Navy sailor was not on active duty, took a default eviction judgment, and left him with an eviction on his record that a dozen landlords then refused to rent around: $60,000 to one servicemember plus a civil penalty . If a default judgment was entered against you while you were serving, it can be reopened; the default-judgment shield walks the deadlines.

Serving in Indiana and looking for what the state adds to your own protections rather than court procedure? That is a different page: Indiana SCRA benefits.