Within 45 days after the filing of the petition pursuant to section 590.01 or within such time as the judge to whom the matter has been assigned may fix, the county attorney, or the attorney general, on behalf of the state, shall respond to the petition by answer or motion which shall be filed with the court administrator of district court and served on the petitioner if unrepresented or on the petitioner's attorney. No further pleadings are necessary except as the court may order. The court may at any time prior to its decision on the merits permit a withdrawal of the petition, may permit amendments thereto, and to the answer. The court shall liberally construe the petition and any amendments thereto and shall look to the substance thereof and waive any irregularities or defects in form.
Minn. Stat. § 590.03
PLEADINGS AND PRACTICE AFTER FILING A POSTCONVICTION PETITION.
Applied in 23 court decisions — leading case Erickson v. State (2014)
Most recently applied in Robert Sam Raisch, Jr. v. State of Minnesota (June 2024)
1967 c 336 s 3; 1Sp1986 c 3 art 1 s 82; 2024 c 123 art 4 s 10
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Reproduced from public-domain Minnesota statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.