The Pennsylvania military affidavit

How Pennsylvania handles it

The statewide form carries no form number, which is why searching by number gets you nowhere. It is titled simply Servicemembers Civil Relief Act Affidavit and published by the Unified Judicial System. The caption asks for both party names exactly as they appear in the case caption, the docket or case number, and the court. Paragraph 1 states that the affidavit is made pursuant to 50 U.S.C. 3931 and paragraph 2 states that the affiant is the plaintiff.

Paragraph 3 is a single choice of three, and paragraph 4 is the work. You check that you have personal knowledge the defendant is in military service, that you have personal knowledge the defendant is not, or that you are unable to determine. Then paragraph 4 asks you to "explain how you know the defendant is or is not in military service, or, if unable to make a determination, the steps you took to investigate the defendant’s military status." Pennsylvania asks the unable-to-determine filer to document effort rather than simply record a blank.

Three notes at the foot of the page do the teaching the form skips. They point to 50 U.S.C. 3911(2) for the definition of military service, to scra.dmdc.osd.mil as the Department of Defense site that may be used to determine status, and to 50 U.S.C. 3931(c) for the penalties for knowingly making or using a false affidavit. There is no checkbox for attaching the search result, so the certificate goes in as an exhibit on the filer’s own initiative.

Divorce has its own rule and its own deadline. Pa.R.C.P. No. 1920.46, titled Affidavit of Non-Military Service, provides that if the defendant fails to appear the plaintiff shall file an affidavit regarding military service with the motion for appointment of a hearing officer, prior to a trial by the court, or with the plaintiff’s affidavit required by Pa.R.C.P. No. 1920.42(b)(1)(ii) and (c)(1)(ii). Its Official Note repeats that no judgment enters against a serving defendant until the court appoints an attorney to protect that defendant’s interest.

On the money side the affidavit rides along with the default judgment machinery rather than triggering it. Judgment by default is entered by praecipe under Pa.R.C.P. No. 1037(b) and related rules, and under Pa.R.C.P. No. 237.1(a)(2) the prothonotary may not enter it unless the praecipe certifies that a written notice of intention to file it was mailed or delivered at least ten days earlier, counted forward from mailing under Pa.R.J.A. 107. The military affidavit is what makes that praecipe safe to file, not a separate step the prothonotary schedules.

What trips filers up here

• Paragraph 2 hard-codes "I am the plaintiff in the above-captioned matter." A paralegal, a servicer employee, or a landlord’s agent has no line on this form, unlike Massachusetts or New York where any competent person or investigator may sign.
• The rules that reference the statute are out of date. The Official Note to Pa.R.C.P. No. 3031 still cites the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Civil Relief Act at 50 U.S.C. App. 520, an address retired in 2015.
• There is no single civil rule stating what the affidavit must contain. In 2021 the Civil Procedural Rules Committee published a proposal to adopt Pa.R.C.P. No. 243 and amend Rules 237.1, 1037, 2955, 3031, 3103, and 3146, and it observed that many judicial districts have local rules on non-military affidavits with varying degrees of specificity. Comments were due April 23, 2021, and Chapter 200 of the Pennsylvania Code still shows no Rule 243 as of August 15, 2026. Check your county’s local rules before you file.
• The judiciary publishes translated versions of the same affidavit, including a Haitian Creole edition dated 2023. The English original has not been reissued since its 2021 posting.

Signing it: declaration, no notary

No notary. The verification reads: "I verify that the statements herein are true and correct to the best of my knowledge, information and belief. I understand that false statements herein are made subject to the penalties of Section 4904 of the Crimes Code (18 Pa. C.S. 4904) relating to unsworn falsification to authorities." A second certification on the same page states that the filing complies with the Case Records Public Access Policy of the Unified Judicial System.

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.

Pennsylvania law on top of the federal rule

51 Pa.C.S. § 7314: Pennsylvania’s own stay provision. Any action in any court involving a person in military service, during service or within 60 days after, may be stayed by the court on its own motion and shall be stayed on application by or for that person, unless the court finds the ability to prosecute or defend is not materially affected by the service.

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