Evicted by Default

The prevalence of default judgments in eviction cases affects housing stability and raises concerns about access to procedural justice for tenants. There is substantial variation across states in the rules governing default judgments that may contribute to variation in the frequency of eviction cases ending in defaults. In this Article, we first construct an original dataset of eviction case data from one jurisdiction and analyze that quantitatively, assessing the share of eviction cases that experience a default, the share of cases that are cured, and the correlates of cases ending in default judgment. Second, we review the state of the law in all fifty states with regard to three categories of eviction default judgment rules, specifically rules related to the entry of default, the entry of judgment following default, and the removal of a default judgment.