Article 32. Accelerated Judgment · Last amended 2022 · Last verified July 21, 2026
(a) Affidavit of Defendant. Except as provided in section thirty-two hundred one, a judgment by confession may be entered, without an action, either for money due or to become due, or to secure the plaintiff against a contingent liability in behalf of the defendant, or both, upon an affidavit executed by the defendant;
1. stating the sum for which judgment may be entered, authorizing the entry of judgment, stating the county where the defendant resides and, if applicable, stating that the interest rate for consumer debt pursuant to section five thousand four of this chapter applies;
2. if the judgment to be confessed is for money due or to become due, stating concisely the facts out of which the debt arose and showing that the sum confessed is justly due or to become due; and 3. if the judgment to be confessed is for the purpose of securing the plaintiff against a contingent liability, stating concisely the facts constituting the liability and showing that the sum confessed does not exceed the amount of the liability.
(b) Entry of Judgment. At any time within three years after the affidavit is executed, it may be filed, but only with the clerk of the county where the defendant’s affidavit stated that the defendant resided when it was executed or where the defendant resided at the time of filing. The clerk shall then enter a judgment in the supreme court for the sum confessed. The clerk shall tax costs in the amount of fifteen dollars, besides disbursements taxable in an action. The judgment may be docketed and enforced in the same manner and with the same effect as a judgment in an action in the supreme court. No judgment by confession may be entered after the defendant’s death. For purposes of this section, a non-natural person resides in any county where it has a place of business.
Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, a government agency engaged in the enforcement of civil or criminal law against a person or a non-natural person may file an affidavit in any county within the state.
(c) Execution Where the Judgment Is Not All Due. Where the debt for which the judgment is entered is not all due, execution may be issued only for the sum which has become due. The execution shall be in the form prescribed for an execution upon a judgment for the full amount recovered, except that it shall direct the sheriff to collect only the sum due, stating the amount with interest and the costs of the judgment. Notwithstanding the issuance and collection of such an execution, the judgment shall remain in force as security for the sum or sums to become due after the execution is issued. When further sums become due, further executions may be issued in the same manner.
(d) Confession by Joint Debtors. One or more joint debtors may confess a judgment for a joint debt due or to become due. Where all the joint debtors do not unite in the confession, the judgment shall be entered and enforced against only those who confessed it and it is not a bar to an action against the other joint debtors upon the same demand.
This section preserves the judgment by confession procedure as it was formerly set forth in CPA §§ 540 to 545, with only minor changes in phraseology and organization.
The section, for purposes of brevity and clarity, combines §§ 540 and 541 in subd (a); combines §§ 543(1) and 544 in subd (b); places § 545 in subd (c); and moves § 542 to the final subd (d). Subd 2 of § 543, added to the statute in 1941 (NY Laws 1941, c 864, § 1), which reflected a legislative policy to protect small non-commercial installment buyers against the possibility of having judgments entered against them before any default, and has been placed in CPLR § 3201.
The term “affidavit” has been substituted for the “statement by defendant” of the former law, since the final sentence of § 541 required that the statement be verified. A prudent creditor will be certain that the defendant’s residence is included in the affidavit to avoid future difficulty in determining the place of filing under subd (b). The latter subdivision also provides for costs, which has been treated generally in article 81.
One purpose of the procedure is to afford a security device to creditors and persons, such as sureties and indorsers, who assume contingent liability on behalf of another. A properly made affidavit confessing judgment enables the creditor to have judgment entered at any time within three years of its making, even before the obligation is due, without the trouble, delay and expense of a regular action. Although execution may be issued only for the collection of money already due, the judgment serves as security for any money not yet due to the same extent as would an ordinary judgment upon which no execution has been issued, acting as a lien upon the debtor’s real property but not on his personal property. See 7 Carmody-Wait, Cyclopedia of New York Practice 346, 347 (1953); Jaffrey v Saussman, 52 Hun 561, 5 NY Supp 629 (1st Dept), affd 117 NY 648, 22 NE 1132 (1889).
The former provisions dated from the Field code where they were substituted for the ancient common law device of a bond and warrant of attorney to confess judgment. They contained two major departures from the common law. The requirement of an affidavit of the facts constituting the liability was inserted to prevent the abuse which had arisen of debtors confessing spurious claims to friends in order to prevent bona fide creditors from reaching their property. See Chappel v Chappel, 12 NY 215, 217, 218 (1855). This affidavit must state the underlying facts and the consideration for the debt in manner and detail similar to that required in drawing a complaint. See, e. g., Fuller v Strauss, 44 App Div 348, 60 NY Supp 917 (1st Dept 1899); 3 Bender, New York Practice 633 (Warren ed 1954). The second change from the common law is the requirement that the debtor himself confess judgment in the affidavit, which abolished the practice of authorizing third persons to do so through a warrant of attorney.
As a result of these changes, the authority for the judgment and the proof of debt are combined in one instrument. The debtor, himself required to verify the statement, is aware of the claim he is confessing and the effect of his action. Other creditors are enabled, by the disclosure of the facts, purportedly underlying the claim, to investigate and question the bona fides of the confession. See Wood v Mitchell, 117 NY 439, 441, 22 NE 1125, 1126 (1889).
The potential dangers of the common law procedure to both the debtor and to other creditors have led to the abolition of judgment by confession before suit in seventeen states, according to a 1954 survey (Note, Confessions of Judgment, 102 U Pa L Rev 524 & n 5 (1954)) and many others prohibit their use in favor of small loan companies. Id. at 527 & n 24. Neither the Federal nor the English rules make provision for the device. On the other hand, about one-fourth of the states have adopted the New York type of provision. Id. at 527, n 23; Millar, Civil Procedure of the Trial Court in Historical Perspective 374, 375 (1952). Since this provision obviates the major defects of the common law device, it seems to have encountered little opposition in this state. The only regulation that the legislature has thought necessary is embodied in the 1941 amendment preventing small non-commercial installment buyers from confessing judgment before any default. As already indicated, this protection has been included in CPLR § 3201.
In paragraph 1 of subd (a) of this section, a provision requiring a statement of the county of the defendant’s residence, or, if he is a nonresident, where entry is authorized, has been inserted so that the proper county for entry under subd (b) will appear in the affidavit.
This measure would amend section 3218 of the Civil Practice Law and Rules to remedy abuses in the use of confessions of judgment by creditors against out-of-state debtors. This measure is in response to recent press reports regarding creditors that execute confessions of judgment in New York State even though the associated agreement or debtor have no nexus to the State. * Under the current statute, a confession of judgment is a written and signed statement, in the form of an affidavit, in which a debtor admits liability and agrees to pay the sum confessed as owed to the creditor pursuant to an * Zachary R. Mider and Zeke Faux, “Sign Here to Lose Everything”, Bloomberg Businessweek (online, November 20, 2018), https://www.bloom berg.comigraphics/2018-confessions-ofjudgment/?smd=confessions-of-judgment.
agreement. A confession of judgment is a legitimate tool that may facilitate commercial transactions, resolve or avoid litigation, support collection of moneys owed under an equitable distribution plan, or ensure that government agencies can recover funds on behalf of victims. When the debtor does not perform or pay according to the agreement, a confession may be filed as a judgment with the county clerk, even in the absence of a pending court action. ** But, in recent years, creditors, often from out-of-state, have entered confessions of judgment in various New York counties against debtors who themselves are out-of-state small business owners with no connection to New York. This practice has resulted in some unscrupulous creditors using New York law and procedure to freeze and then seize debtors’ assets based on a judgment entered in a venue far from where the agreement was executed and the parties reside, making it difficult for a debtor to contest abusive conduct by a creditor.
This measure seeks to correct such abuse without frustrating legitimate use of confessions of judgment within the State. It limits the venue for filing a confession of judgment to in-state debtors, based on where the debtor resided at the time the affidavit was executed or, if the debtor moves, where he or she resides at the time of filing the judgment. This approach is intended to prevent creditors from abusing confessions of judgment by using New York courts as a venue to profit from debtors with no New York connection.
Under this measure, a non-natural person, such as a corporation, would be deemed to reside in the county where it has a principal place of business.
This measure would provide an exemption for government agencies engaged in enforcing civil or criminal law against a person or non-natural person, including non-residents. Government agencies often use confessions of judgment to ensure that they can recover assets to pay, for example, restitution to victims. Therefore, the proposal would permit government law enforcement agencies to enter such judgments in any county within the State.
Add, L 1962, ch 308, eff Sept 1, 1963; amd, L 1963, ch 311, § 2, eff Sept 1, 1963; L 2019, ch 214, § 1, effective August 30, 2019; L 2021, ch 831, § 3, effective April 30, 2022.