Default Procedures - Penn Law Review

Default Procedures - Penn Law Review

In vast numbers of debt-collection cases, defendants never appear. Courts then routinely issue default judgments, often rubber stamping complaints with little or no examination of the underlying facts, on the implied justification that absent defendants have waived their right to a hearing or effectively conceded to the plaintiff’s case. Many other reasons likely cause these absences, however, and potentially meritorious defenses are never raise…