The Minnesota military affidavit

How Minnesota handles it

Minnesota splits default into two tracks, and only one of them ever reaches a judge. Minn. R. Civ. P. 55.01(a) lets the court administrator enter judgment without any judicial involvement when the claim "is upon a contract for the payment of money only, or for the payment of taxes and penalties and interest thereon owing to the state," on request of the plaintiff and "upon affidavit of the amount due," capped at the amount demanded in the complaint or in a Rule 4 written notice. Rule 55.01(b) covers everything else and requires an application to the court, with 14 days' written notice to any party who has appeared. Neither subdivision mentions military service, so the federal requirement rides on top of both.

The affidavit the court wants in the judge-involved track is set by Minn. Gen. R. Prac. 117.02: "A party entitled to judgment by default shall move the court for judgment in that party's favor, setting forth by affidavit the facts which entitle that party to relief. Either the party or the party's lawyer may make the affidavit, which may include reliable hearsay." The rule then exempts Rule 55.01(a) cases from that more extensive affidavit. Rule 117.01 adds that default hearings are scheduled as motions, with the date obtained from the court administrator or a designated motion assignment deputy, and that none of Rule 115's motion requirements apply.

The place Minnesota actually names the document is the family rules. Minn. Gen. R. Prac. 306.01(a) requires that to place a marriage dissolution matter on the default calendar the moving party submit a Default Scheduling Request form developed by the state court administrator and then, "In all default proceedings where a stipulation has not been filed, an Affidavit of Default and of Nonmilitary Status of the defaulting party or a waiver by that party of any rights under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, as amended, shall be filed with the court." Rule 306.01(b) adds a 14-day written notice to a defaulting party who appeared by something other than an answer, and prints the exact notice language the court expects.

Two practical consequences follow. First, a Minnesota contract case for money can end in an administrator-entered judgment where no judge, referee, or hearing ever looks at the file, so nothing in the building surfaces the military question unless the plaintiff puts it in the record. Second, Rule 306.01(a) accepts an alternative to the affidavit that most states do not offer on the face of a rule: a waiver signed by the defaulting party of any rights under the Act. A waiver in the file, and not an affidavit, is a complete answer to that rule.

The Minnesota Judicial Branch also publishes a statewide fill-in form indexed as DIV408, Affidavit of Non Military Status. Its form library at mncourts.gov refused automated requests on August 15, 2026, returning HTTP 403 at every path tried, so nothing described here comes from that form. Everything above is the rule text as published by the Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes, which hosts the official Minnesota Court Rules.

What trips filers up here

• Minnesota calls it "nonmilitary status," not a military affidavit. Searching a Minnesota forms index for "military affidavit" can miss both the rule and the form; search "nonmilitary" and "non military" instead.
• The penalty-of-perjury route under Rule 15 needs three things besides the signature: the date of signing, the county where it was signed, and the state where it was signed. Leave any of the three off and the document is not an affidavit under the rule.
• Rule 306.01(a) treats a signed waiver of Servicemembers Civil Relief Act rights by the defaulting party as an alternative to the nonmilitary affidavit in dissolution defaults, so a file can be complete under that rule with no affidavit in it at all.
• In a Rule 55.01(a) administrator-entered judgment there is no hearing and no judge. A servicemember who is served with a Minnesota contract claim and does not answer can have a judgment entered clerically, which is why putting your status in writing early matters more here than in a state where every default gets a hearing.

Signing it: notary or declaration

Minn. Gen. R. Prac. 15 settles this for every Minnesota affidavit. Unless another rule says otherwise, an "affidavit" means either a document signed, sworn, and notarized, or a document signed under penalty of perjury under Minn. Stat. section 358.116 with the signature placed immediately below a declaration substantially reading "I declare under penalty of perjury that everything I have stated in this document is true and correct." The rule adds a requirement people miss: besides the signature, the document must show the date of signing and the county and state where it was signed.

The form accepts either a notarized oath or an unsworn declaration under penalty of perjury. Pick the declaration unless your court or local rule tells you otherwise; it is faster and federal law accepts it.

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