Judgment (law)

A judgment (see spelling note below), in a legal context, is synonymous with the formal decision made by a court following a lawsuit. At the same time the court may also make a range of court orders, such as imposing a sentence upon a guilty defendant in a criminal matter, or providing a remedy for the plaintiff in a civil matter.

In the United States, under the rules of civil procedure governing practice in federal courts and most state courts, the entry of judgment is the final order entered by the court in the case, leaving no further action to be taken by the court with respect to the issues contested by the parties to the lawsuit. With certain exceptions, only a final judgment is subject to appeal.

In some legal systems (particularly civil law jurisdictions), a judgment is not considered final until after appeals have been exhausted or waived.

Types of jUDGEMENt in law

• Consent decree, a final, binding judgment in a case in which both parties agree, by agreement, to a particular outcome
• Declaratory judgment, a judgment of a court in a civil case which declares the rights, duties, or obligations of each party in a dispute
• Default judgment, a binding judgment in favor of the plaintiff when the defendant has not responded to a summons
• Summary judgment, a legal term which means that a court has made a determination without a full trial
• Vacated judgment, the result of the judgment of an appellate court which overturns, reverses, or sets aside the judgment of a lower court

Reserved judgment

A judge will sometimes, having heard both sides of the argument, refrain from making an immediate decision and retire to consider the case further. The judge will announce that they are to 'reserve' their judgment until a later time. When the judgment is finally published, it will typically be introduced 'This is a reserved judgment...' as acknowledgement of this process. It is sometimes annotated in law reports by the Latin phrase "Cur. adv. vult." or "c.a.v." (Curia advisari vult).

Release of judgment

In some jurisdictions, full payment of a monetary judgment entitles the judgment debtor to receive from the judgment creditor, upon request, a document called a "satisfaction and release of judgment", whereby the judgment debtor may have the original judgment vacated, the action dismissed, any lien removed, and the damaging record expunged from the judgment debtor's public records and credit history. An example of this is in Illinois state law, cf. 735 ILCS 5/12-183.

Spelling

See also: American and British English spelling differences

Judgment is the preferred spelling in a legal context . The spelling judgment is also found in the Authorized Version of the Bible.

In a non-legal context, however, the situation differs between countries. The spelling judgement (with e added) is common in the United Kingdom in a non-legal context, . The spelling judgment without the e is however often listed first and in any case without comment or regional restriction in major UK dictionaries. In British English, the spelling judgment is correct when referring to a court's or judge's formal ruling, whereas the spelling judgement is used for other meanings. In American English, judgment prevails in all contexts. In Canada and Australia, in a non-legal context both forms are equally acceptable, although judgment is more common in Canada and judgement in Australia. However, in a legal and theological context, judgment is the only correct form. In New Zealand the form judgment is the preferred spelling in dictionaries, newspapers and legislation, although the variant judgement can also be found in all three categories. In South Africa, judgement is the more common form.