Military Search use case: SCRA verification before filing suit

When a defendant does not respond to a civil suit, the plaintiff typically asks the court for a default judgment. Before it can be entered, the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA) generally requires the plaintiff to file an affidavit stating whether the defendant is in military service. Courts take that requirement seriously, and a judgment entered without proper verification is vulnerable to challenge.

This is the fifth article in our Military Search use case series, which looks at one industry at a time and the point in its process where a military status check belongs. Here, the industry is legal services, and the check belongs in due diligence, before the case is filed.

The scenario

Before filing civil litigation, a law firm uses Quandis Military Search to query the Department of Defense’s Defense Manpower Data Center (DMDC) and determine whether the defendant is on active duty.

Courts often require this verification before issuing default judgments, which makes it a critical step in the litigation process. Running it before filing, rather than when the default motion is drafted, gives the firm time to account for SCRA protections from the start, and the same verification supports the affidavit later.

Why pre-filing verification matters

Law firms that handle collections, evictions, foreclosures, repossessions, and small-claims suits often file at volume, for many clients, on tight timelines. In that setting:

• Manual lookups do not scale. Searching one defendant at a time, then saving and filing the result by hand, takes attorney and staff time that is better spent elsewhere.
• Names vary. Defendants appear in pleadings under the names a creditor had on file, which may not match how the person is recorded. Military Search parses aliases such as “AKA” and “FKA” entries and searches the name variations a person may be recorded under.
• The evidence has to hold up. A verification is only as useful as the documentation behind it. The court, and possibly opposing counsel, may want to see what was searched and what came back.

What Military Search provides

For law firms, the capabilities that matter most are:

• Verified DMDC data. Results come directly from the Department of Defense, with a status certificate for each search.
• Individual and batch verification. Check a single defendant before filing, or bulk-verify every party in a docket by file or system integration.
• Documentation for SCRA affidavits. Generate military status affidavits from DoD verification results, with a complete audit trail of screenshots and certificates, and your case number overlaid on the certificate for the case file.
• API integration. Connect legal and case management systems through a REST API, so verification is part of the filing workflow.

Military Search is a business-to-business service for organizations with a permissible purpose to verify military status. It is not available to consumers.

A note on obligations

Affidavit content, timing, and the court’s handling of a defendant in military service vary by jurisdiction and by the facts of the case. This article describes the general shape of the SCRA requirement and is not legal advice. Confirm your specific requirements with counsel and the rules of the court.

The right steps before filing

A military status check before filing helps legal teams reduce the risk of a judgment that could later be set aside, and it makes sure servicemember defendants receive the protections the SCRA provides. With verification, certificates, and affidavits produced from the same search, the evidence is ready when the court asks for it.

To see the compliance package for attorneys, including affidavits and image packages, read the Military Search product overview.

The Military Search use case series

Each article in this series looks at one industry and the point in its process where a military status check belongs:

• Property managers: verifying tenant status before an eviction filing
• Telecommunications: verifying status before early termination fees
• Mortgage servicing: verifying borrower status before and during foreclosure
• Auto finance: verifying borrower status before repossession
• Law firms: SCRA verification as legal due diligence before filing