Civil court dispute: 20 days from dispute notice or claim?

... directly out of the document you linked:

The defendant must file the statement of defence and serve it on the plaintiff within the applicable time after service of the statement of claim. (3) The applicable time is (a) 20 days if service is effected in Alberta, (b) one month if service is effected outside Alberta but in Canada, and (c) 2 months if service is effected outside Canada.

"Within the applicable time AFTER SERVICE of the statement of claim...the applicable time is 20 days"

More and more it sounds like it is definitely not the date it is filed. Actually pretty clear it's not date filed, unless also served on that date. I just had read somewhere about dispute notice being required as well.

However, looks like I also have to serve the plaintiff with my dispute/counterclaim within that time and can't JUST file my dispute in courthouse.

/r/legaladvicecanada Thread Parent