Creditors (and other plaintiffs) may find it harder to
obtain and hold on to default judgments in the State of Texas.
A recent study of appellate cases heard in the fourteen
Texas Courts of Appeal during the Sept. 2010 to Aug. 2011 time frame found that
appeals from “no answer” default judgments – in other words, cases where the
defendant failed to enter an answer, the plaintiff obtained a default judgment,
and the defendant filed a timely appeal from that default judgment – had a
reversal rate of 77%. So, approximately
three out of every four default judgments was reversed and sent back down to
the trial court for further action.
The
reason for these reversals varied, as one would expect, but the primary basis
appeared to be defects in personal service on the defendant/debtor. The lesson for creditors: be extra careful
when obtaining service of process on debtors if you want to increase your chances
of holding on to the judgment.
Source: Liberato & Rutter, “Reasons for Reversal
in the Texas Courts of Appeal,” 48 Hous. L. Rev. 993 (2012).
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