Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Related legal acts

Key definition

Default judgment definition

What does Default judgment mean? In civil litigation, a default judgment is a court order deciding a claim without a trial because the defendant has not responded in time—typically by failing to file an acknowledgment of service or a defence after valid service. In England and Wales, this is governed by the Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) Part 12, with applications to set aside or vary under CPR Part 13 where the judgment was irregularly entered or the defendant shows a real prospect of successfully defending the claim or another good reason. In Northern Ireland, comparable provisions exist in the Rules of the...

Default judgment procedure under CPR 12: when to use request or Part 23 application, required evidence, and Commercial/Circuit Commercial Court modifications (England and Wales)

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Practice notes

Procedure for obtaining a default judgment

This Practice Note sets out how to secure a default judgment (also termed judgment in default, judgment in default of acknowledgement of service, and judgment in default of defence). It clarifies that you may proceed by filing a request on the appropriate practice form or by making a formal application under the CPR 23 regime, and identifies when each route is appropriate. It also details the correct steps for a request or an application and the supporting evidence required, together with adjustments to the default judgment process in the Commercial Court and the Circuit Commercial Court.

For when the court may enter default judgment, see Practice Note: Obtaining default judgment-general principles. For the character of a default judgment and the forms of judgment available in default, see Practice Note: Default judgment-the judgment itself.

Note that this Practice Note deals only with the procedure under CPR 12-it does not address obtaining default judgment within dedicated online claims procedures. For guidance on those, see the following Practice Notes:

Online Civil Money Claims pilot scheme-CPR PD 51R...

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Web page updated on 26/05/2026

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