Most often, it is a judgment in favor of a plaintiff when the defendant has not responded to a summons or has failed to appear before a court of law.
The concept of default judgement appears in ancient China, including in Zheng Xuan's 2nd century CE commentary on the Rites of Zhou.
[2] Regarding a requirement mentioned in the Rites of Zhou for disputants to bring a bundle of arrows to court, Zheng says that "Failure either to appear in court or to present a bundle of arrows should be tantamount to admission that one lacks a straight account of the facts.
The defendant's name is also entered onto a register (although if they pay within a month it will be removed) which is open to everyone, and is particularly used to vet the credit-worthiness of people.
A process is gone through whereby the defendant states how soon they can afford to pay the debt (usually monthly installments) and the claimant can either accept this, or request another amount.
The decision is binding, even if it means the claimant is out of their money for a considerable amount of time, and even if interest cannot be charged on the outstanding sum (which it usually can not).
Pragmatic reasons why judgments are set aside are mainly because on balance, it is seen as better to give a person who may have a good defense extra time, and avoid a potentially devastating judgment, and thereby keep a claimant out of their money for a further two to four weeks, than give the claimant the benefit.
[6] In the United States the law relating to a default judgment depends upon the jurisdiction within which the civil action was filed.
[20] Often, part of the procedure for relief from default involves the defendant filing an answer to the complaint.
[24] Title II of the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act significantly restricts default judgments against members of the military services.
[29] Otherwise, a default judgment must be issued by a judge, who may require the plaintiff to present proof of his claims.
For example, mere "excusable neglect" is, at least at the federal level, a sufficient reason to vacate default judgments.
[32] Sewer service, where a default judgement is obtained by fraud by not properly notifying the defendant that they are being sued, may result in a motion to vacate the default judgement,[33] a civil lawsuit against a dishonest plaintiff or process server, or criminal charges for swearing a false affidavit.
[34] A court entertaining a motion to vacate a default judgment often considers the reasons presented the defendant's failure to respond (such as "excusable neglect" and the prejudice that might be suffered by the other party).
[35] The court must weigh these factors in light of two competing considerations: the general preference for cases to be decided "on the merits", and the important need for "finality in litigation.