Montana Motion for Default Judgment

In order to vacate a judgment in California, You must file a motion with the court asking the judge to vacate or set aside the judgment. Among other things, you must tell the judge why you did not respond to the lawsuit (this can be done by written declaration).

Typically, a court's rules governing enforcement of default judgments include procedures for wage garnishments, attachment of bank accounts and seizure of assets. The plaintiff can usually pursue more than one of these enforcement mechanisms simultaneously.

What happens next? When you file your Motion and Affidavit to Set Aside Default, you will get a hearing date and time from the court clerk. At the hearing, the judge will grant or deny the motion. If the judge grants your motion, the default or default judgment will be set aside, and the case will move forward.

After you notify the defendant of the judgment, you can begin to enforce the judgment. Your judgment might be for money, repossession, eviction, foreclosure, or any number of things. In any case, your rights at this point would be the same as if you had gone to trial and won.

Generally, if a defendant fails to respond to a complaint you can get a default judgment after 45 days. However, the court system is very slow these days and it can take several months to get the court to issue the default judgment.

First, you can ask the court to set aside the default judgment and give you an opportunity to contest it. Next, you can settle the debt with the debt buyer for an amount less than what the default judgment is for. And finally you can eliminate the default judgment completely by filing for bankruptcy.

If you do not think the default judgment was appropriately entered against you, you must file a motion with the court asking the judge to set aside (void or nullify) the judgment. If the judge grants your motion, the case starts back up again.

You cannot appeal this kind of judgment and have a new trial until you vacate the default judgment, that is, until you have the judgment removed or erased. To vacate a default judgment, do the following:Get the form called Notice of Motion to Vacate Judgment from the small claims clerk.