If a judgment in default is incorrectly entered, what should the court do?

If a judgment in default is incorrectly entered, what should the court do?

• A. Reinstate the judgment as is.
• B. Amend the amount of the judgment only.
• C. Set it aside only if there is a defect in service.
• D. The court must set it aside.

Answer: (D)

When a judgment in default is entered, it becomes the court’s record of a decision against a party based on a failure to respond. If that entry is incorrect, the crucial step is to fix the record so justice isn’t built on a mistake. The correct remedy is for the court to set the default judgment aside, because doing so removes the erroneous entry and allows the case to proceed on proper grounds—either by a correctly entered default judgment or by a hearing on the merits. Keeping the incorrect entry would perpetuate the error, and attempting to amend only the amount addresses a narrow detail rather than the entry itself. The issue isn’t limited to defects in service, which is just one possible cause; other mistakes in the default entry require the same corrective action. Therefore, the court must set it aside.