Legal Question in Civil Litigation in New Jersey
Subject: Case in small claims court. If a plaintiff files a lawsuit against two defendants and one defendant appears in court and the other defendant doesn't appear in court and the case proceeds forward and the judge makes a ruling, has an improper, illegal or other error occurred or should this case have been deemed a default? Can a judge proceed according to his/her decretion without asking the plaintiff's agreement when only one defendant is present. Is there grounds for an appeal?
1 Answer from Attorneys
If a defendant does not appear in court, a default should be entered against that defendant. Unless the other defendant is a lawyer, he/she cannot represent the missing defendant. Hence, the absence is a default regardless of what happens in the rest of the case. However, it may be difficult to get a judgment based on the missing defendan't default depending on how the matter is decided by the court. The answer to that is fact-specific. There might be grounds for an appeal, but appeals from Small Claims are rarely worth the cost or effort. � See also: http://info.corbettlaw.net/lawguru.htm
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