The Nebraska military affidavit

How Nebraska handles it

Nebraska handles this at two levels with two different instruments, and which one you need depends on which court you are in. County court runs on a form. Uniform County Court Rules Section 6-1432 permits a plaintiff whose defendant "fails to answer, demur, or otherwise plead" to take default judgment "upon a verified petition, affidavits, or sworn testimony establishing a claim," and adds that no judgment goes on a negotiable instrument unless the original is surrendered to the court for cancellation. The military statement travels inside the county court form itself.

District court runs on a rule, and the rule is explicit. Uniform District Court Rules Section 6-1508 says that on a contract claim the party must submit, with the order entering judgment, a statement of the principal amount due showing credits and a separate interest computation, and that "to such statement shall be appended an affidavit of the party or a certificate of his or her attorney showing that the party against whom judgment is sought is not a minor or incompetent person or in the military service, that such amount shown by the statement is justly due and owing, and that no part thereof has been paid except as set forth in the statement." For every other kind of monetary judgment, the party proves damages under oath and still files the same affidavit or attorney certificate on minority, competence, and military service.

Form CC 3:19 is one page and the military line is a single clause: "The defendant(s) is/are not now in the U.S. Military Service." It sits in the same run-on paragraph as the request for default, the recital that service was proper, the plaintiff's oath that the complaint's allegations are true, and the assertion of entitlement to judgment as a matter of law. There is no unknown option, no space for the facts behind the statement, and no checkbox or attachment slot for a Department of Defense status report.

The rest of the form is arithmetic. Judgment amount, pre-judgment interest, attorney's fees, and costs each get their own line, followed by an interest rate election of Default or Other. The form flags Neb. Rev. Stat. Section 25-1801 attorney's fees when the suit is for services, unless the judgment amount exceeds $4,000.00. Below that come the notary instruction, signature, printed name, street address or post office box, city, state and ZIP, telephone number, and email address, then the acknowledgment block.

One practical difference between the two courts is who can sign. Section 6-1508 lets an attorney certify the military fact in district court, so a creditor's lawyer signs a certificate rather than dragging the client to a notary. County court, through CC 3:19, wants the plaintiff before a notary, a judge, or a clerk. The Nebraska Judicial Branch's master forms list carries CC 3:19 under the title Motion and Affidavit for Default Judgment, and the form has not been reissued since it was released as New 05/2015.

What trips filers up here

• The form's own header cites Neb. Rev. Stat. Section 25-1028, which is the garnishment statute on a garnishee that fails to answer, not the county court default provision. The default authority for county court is Uniform County Court Rules Section 6-1432.
• Neither the county court form nor the district court rule offers an unable-to-determine path, even though 50 U.S.C. Section 3931(b)(1)(B) allows one. Both are written as if the plaintiff always knows.
• A separate Nebraska form called Military Status Affidavit, ASD 3:10, appears on the same master forms list. It is used with attorney license renewal and has nothing to do with default judgments.
• CC 3:19 has been unchanged since May 2015, so it still asks for a notary in a state where district court practice accepts an attorney certificate for the identical fact.

Signing it: notarization required

The form prints an instruction in bold above the signature line: "(do not sign until a notary is present)." The acknowledgment block below it is completed by a Judge, Clerk of the Court, or Notary Public, with the commission expiration date and a serial number if any.

This form carries a notary block, so budget for a notary before your filing date. Federal law sets a floor, not a ceiling: 50 U.S.C. § 3931(b)(4) permits an unsworn declaration under penalty of perjury, but a state is free to require more on its own form, and this one does.

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