Once court proceedings are served (sent to) the Defendant or the Defendant‚ A Solicitors, then they must send a court form known as an Acknowledgment of Service or their Defence to the claim to the court and to the Claimant’s Solicitors. If this is not done within 14 days then the Claimant‚ A Solicitors can apply to the Court for Default Judgment. If the Court grants the Default Judgment then the Claimant has won their claim and all that remains is for the parties to agree the value of the claim or for the Court to determine the value of the claim.
In addition, if the Defendant or their Solicitors send an Acknowledgement of Service but do not send their Defence in as per the specified time period, then the Claimant can also apply for Default Judgment.
Often there is a good reason why the Defendant hasn’t served an Acknowledgement of Service or their Defence on time and therefore frequently when a Claimant obtains Default Judgment the Defendant is often successful in overturning Default Judgment. To overturn Default Judgment the Defendant usually has to act very quickly.
The section of the Civil Procedure Rules which deals with Default Judgment is Part 13 and can be found at this link: https://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/procedure-rules/civil/rules/part13
