Default Judgment

In school competitions, it is not uncommon for a team to have an insufficient number of its members be able to make the game, or for someone to be the only wrestler or fencer to show up in their category. Whenever a situation occurs where only one side appears, that party is said to have won by default.

In adversarial legal situations, usually there are two sides: a plaintiff and a defendant. If the plaintiff does not appear on the court date without reason, a judge can dismiss the case on default grounds. If the defendant does not appear without reason, a judge can rule a default judgement in favor of the plaintiff. The default judgment can also include claims, provided the claims were not of the type requiring evidence.

Moral: “90 percent of success is showing up.”