Summary judgment
Summary judgment is a civil court process where plaintiffs claiming non-payment of simple debts and money payment obligations (such as well-crafted indemnities[1]) can have judgment entered without the need for a full trial.
What happens
- Claim: The plaintiff files a statement of claim and an accompanying affidavit giving evidence that
- A payment obligation exists
- It has not been honoured.
- Defence: The defendant is given say 30 days to reply with a statement of defence and supporting affidavit denying the claim or pointing to some matter of legal or factual dispute—the “it’s complicated” gambit.
- If it does—and the court buys it—then the court will deny the motion for summary judgment and will set the dispute down for a trial
- If it does not—or it does, but the court doesn’t buy it— the Court can enter judgment immediately.
Indemnities
Summary judgment is the reason some well-meaning attorneys believe indemnities to have magical properties they, in fact, do not. Simple claims for the non-payment of an undisputed amount have magical properties. If you can persuade her honour that your indemnity claim is one of those, then you may just be in luck.
References
- ↑ Careful, counsel: aptness for summary judgment is not a magic property of all indemnities: it depends on how well you have crafted yours.