default judgment

When a defendant to English legal proceedings does not file an acknowledgement of service or a defence within time frames fixed by the Civil Procedure Rules have passed, the claimant will be entitled to apply for default judgment against the defendant. Default judgment is also referred to “Judgment in Default”.

An application for default judgment is an administrative process (by filing a prescribed form) rather than a judicial decision. However there are specific cases where default judgment is not available. In other cases, an application notice must be filed, such as when an injunction has previously been granted in the litigation.

Benefits

The process to obtain default judgment dispenses with the trial, and the claimant wins the case, and is available where the claim is for a liquidated sum or unliquidated sum of money.

Acknowledgements of Service

The time for filing an acknowledgment of service varies depends upon the country in which the claim form is served. When a claimant wishes to serve the claim form outside the UK and the European Union, it must apply for permission to “serve out” of the jurisdiction. The time for service are:

1. where the defendant is in England, within 14 days of service of the claim form and particulars of claim;
2. where the claim form and particulars of claim are served abroad, within the time specified by CPR PD6B. The table for the time allowed for each country and territory appears below.

If an acknowledgement of service is filed, the defendant must also file a defence. The defence must be filed within 14 days of the time that an acknowledgment of service is filed.

If an acknowledgement of service is not filed, the defence must be filed within the time allowed for an acknowledgement of service.

In summary, filing an acknowledgment of service allows a defendant a further 14 days to file its defence.

These time frames are the default. The court may vary these default time frames upon an application to the court, and there is good reason to do so.

When Default Judgment is not Available

Judgment in default is not available in cases which include:

1. the Consumer Credit Act 1974 applies;
2. the proceedings have been commenced by the Part 8 procedure;
3. the other party has applied to strike out a statement of case or applied for summary judgment;
4. the sum of the claim has been satisfied by the opposing party.
5. the claimant requests any remedy other than damages or delivery of goods (and provides the defendant with the option of paying the value of the goods).

Setting aside Default Judgment

Applications to set aside default judgment must be made promptly, and may be set aside where:

1. the sum claimed by the claimant was paid by the defendant;
2. it was wrongly entered, for example, where the defendant was outside the jurisdiction and the judgment did not follow from an application notice;
3. the defendant has a real prospect of successfully defending the claim;
4. the defendant can show some other good reason why (1) the judgment should be set aside or (2) the defendant should be allowed to defend the claim;
5. may be made by a person which is not party to the proceedings, provided they are directly affected by the judgment.

If a judgment or order is set aside, any enforcement of the judgment or order ceases to have effect unless the court otherwise orders.

Time for Service of the Acknowledgment of Service

The number of days allowed for service of an acknowledgment of service for different countries and territories are: