§ 9-12-18.Right to confess judgment and appeal; where and when entered

Confessing judgment lets a party accept a judgment against himself without a trial, and this section spells out both the right to do it and the boundaries around where it happens. Subsection (a) makes the right unilateral: either party may confess judgment without the other side's consent, and may still appeal from that confession — without having reserved the right to appeal in advance — in any case where an appeal is otherwise allowed by law.

Subsection (b) narrows where a confession of judgment can be entered. Unless another law expressly says otherwise, it belongs in the county where the defendant resided when the action began, and the underlying action still has to be regularly filed and docketed like any other case — a confession is not a shortcut around the ordinary machinery of getting a case on the court's docket. The statute carves out one exception to the venue rule: a judge of a superior court or a magistrate may confess judgment in his own court.

Confession of judgment is a distinct move from the consent judgment addressed later in this article. Once entered, a confessed judgment still runs into the rules that follow it here — an appeal entered within the allowed time suspends the judgment, and if security was given on that appeal, the plaintiff can reach both the principal and the surety on it.