legal-terms definition civil-judgment
What does a default judgement mean in the Alex Jones case
<p>NPR <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/10/01/1042423742/alex-jones-sandy-hook-hoax-conspiracy" rel="noreferrer">ran a story</a> about the judgment against Alex Jones by parents of Sandy Hook victims.</p>
<p>Below is an excerpt (emphasis mine)</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Judge Maya Guerra Gamble in Austin, home of Infowars, entered <strong>default judgments</strong> against Jones, Infowars and other defendants for what she called their &quot;flagrant bad faith and callous disregard&quot; of court orders to turn over documents to the parents' lawyers. The rulings were issued on Monday and released on Thursday.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>What is a default judgment?  I originally thought it was a default judgment if one party didn't show up to the court date, but the rest of the article makes clear Alex Jones and his lawyers were present.</p>
<p>What does &quot;default judgments&quot; mean in the circumstance?  What other kinds of judgments were possible?</p>

<p>A default judgment is a judgment in favor of a party when the opposing party has failed to do something that is required, such as appear before the court. In this instance, defendant's failure was to provide court-ordered documents. See <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/rules/frcp/rule_37" rel="noreferrer">Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 37(b)</a> for various failures to to comply with a court order. Failure to appear in court is just one of the failures to comply that can lead to default judgment.</p>
