Default judgement is awarded to the plaintiff if the defendant does not reply to the statement of claim within 28 days of when it was served. A statement of claim is determined as served after the fourth working day of when it was posted. If you did not personally serve the statement of claim you can check the day it was served by calling the court, looking at the Affidavit of Service or asking the person who served the statement of claim.
In order to obtain a default judgement, you must fill out and sign two forms. These are:
- Form 38 Notice of Motion – Default judgment for liquidated claim
- Form 41 Affidavit of Service
If the court served the Statement of Claim by post, the Affidavit of Service form will not be required. Similarly, if the Statement of Claim was served by a process server, they would have already filled out and signed an Affidavit of Service and you will not be required to file the Affidavit of Service. In regards to the Notice of Motion, it must be filed within 14 days of you signing the form. Copies of the Notice of Motion and Affidavit of Service do not have to be served on the defendant. Also, there is no filing fees involved with these specific forms. You have to take or send both the Affidavit of Service and Notice of Motion to the court where the Statement of Claim was served.
In order to obtain a sealed or certified copy of the judgement, you need to file a Form 43 Judgement or Order
As well as filing this form, you will also have to provide a filing fee of $55. This filing fee is unable to be claimed back from the defendant.
In most instances, the court will enter a default judgment for the outstanding amount if the Notice of Motion and Affidavit of Service show:
- that the defendant was properly served with the Statement of Claim
- that it is more than 28 days since the date of service
- that the claim has not been paid, or not been paid in full AND
- if the court records show that the defendant has not filed a Defence. Once you have a default judgment you can enforce the judgment against the defendant.