Short answer. Yes, once. A defendant may, for meritorious reasons, be granted an additional period of not more than thirty calendar days to file an answer — and is allowed only one motion for extension. For any other pleading, a motion for extension is prohibited and considered a mere scrap of paper.
What the law says
A defendant may, for meritorious reasons, be granted an additional period of not more than thirty calendar days to file an answer.
Rule 11, Section 11 — Extension of time to file an answer. Read the full provision →
What the law says
A motion for extension to file any pleading, other than an answer, is prohibited and considered a mere scrap of paper.
Rule 11, Section 11 — Extension of time to file an answer. Read the full provision →
One extension, thirty days, for reasons that hold up
The rule grants the request in principle and rations it in every particular: a defendant may, for meritorious reasons, be granted an additional period of not more than thirty calendar days to file an answer, and a defendant is only allowed to file one motion for extension of time to file an answer. Three limits, then: the grant is discretionary and requires meritorious reasons, not boilerplate about pressure of work; the ceiling is thirty calendar days, weekends and holidays included; and the motion cannot be repeated. Whatever additional period the court gives, there is no second bite.
Only the answer enjoys this privilege
The same section slams the door on every other pleading: a motion for extension to file any pleading, other than an answer, is prohibited and considered a mere scrap of paper. The phrase is deliberately brutal — a prohibited motion is treated as if nothing was filed, which means it does not stop any period from running. A party who files one and waits for a ruling discovers that the deadline expired underneath it. The rule keeps one safety valve on the court's side: it may allow any other pleading to be filed after the time fixed by these Rules — but that is the court excusing lateness after the fact, not a party buying time in advance.
Using the single extension intelligently
Because the motion can be made only once, treat it as a resource to be spent deliberately. File it before the original period to answer expires, state the actual reasons — the need to gather records from abroad, ongoing settlement talks, recent engagement of counsel — and ask for the time genuinely needed, up to the thirty-day cap. Then build the answer to be complete, because the defences and objections an answer must raise are shaped by what you plead in it. The alternative to a timely answer is grim: a defendant who fails to answer risks being declared in default, litigating thereafter from the outside of his own case. The linked commentary on default explains exactly what that costs.