Court procedures are all about time deadlines. If a petition is served on the responding party within the state of Washington, the party served has 20 days to respond to a petition. If the party is served out-of-state the party has 60 days to respond to a petition. If the petitioning party does not receive the response to the petition by the proper deadline, then the petitioning party can file a motion for default to obtain an order of default.