With the steep increase in crimes and other offenses throughout the states and counties of United States, the Court Judgment has become a matter of utmost importance today.
The court judgments may also include 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 law 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.
The various types of court judgments that are in practice are:
- Consent judgment, a final, binding judgment in a case in which both parties agree, by stipulation, to a particular outcome. It is considered the most practical as the order that is passed to settle the litigation in front of the court is accepted by both parties.
- Declaratory judgments are judgment of a court in a civil case that declares the rights, duties, or obligations of each party in a dispute. However, a declaratory judgment does not order any action or result in any award of damages to any party to the case. It is requested when a party is threatened with lawsuit and the threatened lawsuit is not yet filed, or when it is thought by one of two (or more) parties that their rights under law and/or contract might conflict; or as part of a counterclaim to prevent further, similar lawsuits from the same plaintiff.
- A binding judgment is in favor of the plaintiff when the defendant has not responded to a summons is referred to as Default judgment. A defendant can have a default judgment vacated, or set aside, by filing a motion, after the judgment is entered, by showing of a proper excuse.
- Summary judgment is a legal term that means that a court has made a determination without a full trial. A lawsuit will ordinarily proceed to trial, which is an opportunity for each party to present evidence in an attempt to persuade the fact finder (who decides "what really happened") that such party is saying the truth and that, under the judge's view of applicable law, such party should prevail.
- Another type of judgment in common referral is Vacated judgment, the result of the judgment of an appellate court which overturns, reverses, or sets aside the judgment of a lower court. A trial court also has the power, under certain circumstances to vacate its own judgments.
- In a 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.