Rule 68-I.Judgment by Confession or Consent

A confessed or consent judgment lets parties skip a contested trial and agree on the outcome directly, but it still needs a mechanism to make it official. Rule 68-I(c) provides the simplest route: once a complaint has been filed, the clerk can enter judgment by confession or consent without a judge's involvement at all, as long as every party in the case is represented by counsel and the stipulation is signed by all of those attorneys.

Every other request for a confession or consent judgment has to go through the court. Rule 68-I(d) requires the party seeking that judgment to submit a praecipe titled “Rule 68-I Praecipe Requesting a Hearing,” with a copy of the proposed judgment attached, signed by all parties to it, and with a blank line left for the judge's signature. If the praecipe meets those requirements, the clerk schedules a hearing. At that hearing, the judge or magistrate judge must be satisfied that any self-represented party understands the nature and consequences of the judgment before it can be entered.

The 2017 rewrite of this rule changed who bears responsibility for protecting an unrepresented party. Earlier versions relied on opposing counsel to certify that they had explained the judgment to a self-represented party. The current rule instead has the court perform that check directly whenever any party lacks a lawyer, which the drafters saw as better protection for both the self-represented party and opposing counsel, and a better way to confirm that any attorney's fees built into the judgment are supported by law. Either path still depends on a complaint already being on file — a party cannot use Rule 68-I to obtain a judgment before satisfying Rule 3's requirement to open a case first.