Short answer. You have five days from being served the application and its supporting documents to comment on it, unless the court fixes a different period on your motion. Your comment must be verified and accompanied by affidavits, depositions, or other authentic supporting documents.
What the law says
A copy of the application and all supporting documents shall be served upon the adverse party, who shall have five days to comment thereon unless a different period is fixed by the court upon his motion. The comment shall be verified and shall be accompanied by affidavits, depositions or other authentic documents in support thereof.
Rule 61, Section 2 — Comment. Read the full provision →
Service starts the five-day clock
Rule 61, Section 2 requires that a copy of the support pendente lite application, along with all its supporting documents, be served on the adverse party. From the moment of that service, a default five-day period begins for that party to file a comment on the application. Because the hearing itself is later set within a similarly short window after the comment period ends, the whole proceeding is designed to move quickly from service to a ruling on interim support.
The default period can be changed on motion
The five days is not necessarily fixed. The section allows the court to set a different period, but only upon the adverse party's own motion — meaning the party who needs more time (or, in principle, less) has to actively ask the court to adjust the deadline rather than assuming it will be extended automatically. A party who simply lets the five days pass without either commenting or moving for an extension risks having the application proceed to hearing without any comment on record at all. This five-day period binds only the adverse party responding to the application; it does not itself set the timetable for the movant's own supporting papers, which the section addresses separately by requiring they accompany the application when it is first served.
The comment must be verified and evidence-backed
A bare denial or unverified response does not satisfy this section. The comment must be verified — sworn to under oath — and accompanied by affidavits, depositions, or other authentic documents supporting the position taken. This mirrors the evidentiary weight the application itself carries and ensures the hearing that follows has real evidence from both sides to work with. Because the eventual hearing proves facts in the same manner as evidence on motions, the affidavits and documents attached to the comment are often the adverse party's primary evidentiary showing, not merely a preliminary sketch of their position. Waiting to gather that supporting proof until the hearing itself is already scheduled leaves very little time, so the comment period is effectively when the adverse party's case actually gets built.