What do you do if a Defendant Ignores a Jail Neglect Lawsuit?

After a federal lawsuit is filed regarding any alleged jail neglect, all defendants need to be timely served. Once all defendants are timely served, each defendant will have a specific period of time to either file an answer to the lawsuit, a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, or in some jurisdictions, a motion for more definite statement. If a defendant fails to timely file an appropriate answer or other motion, then the person who filed the lawsuit can take a default judgment against the defendant who failed to timely respond to the lawsuit. This happened in a recent federal court case, and we do not recite here the allegations in the lawsuit and have no way of knowing whether any of the allegations would be true. We provide some information about an order in that case to demonstrate what a defendant can do if a person who follows a lawsuit takes a default judgment.

In that case, a resident of a commitment center sued several employees. The defendants failed to respond to the lawsuit in time, resulting in the court entering a default against them. However, the defendants, through their attorney, filed a motion to vacate the default, citing a clerical error made by a claims adjuster for Wellpath, a company involved in the case. The adjuster mistakenly marked the file for that case as an appeal for one of the plaintiff’s other lawsuits.

The man who filed the lawsuit claimed that made efforts to notify the defendants and about the case, but the defendants dispute this, providing evidence suggesting they were unaware of the lawsuit until they received notice of a damages hearing. The court considered whether the default was willful, if vacating it would prejudice the man who filed suit, and if the defendants had a valid defense. Despite finding no clear evidence of a strong defense, the court granted the motion to vacate the default, allowing the defendants to respond to the lawsuit within 14 days.

It appears that the man who filed the lawsuit was not represented by an attorney. Even if he were represented by an attorney, it may not have changed the outcome. While federal courts must apply the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, there are at times legal arguments to avoid application of the rules of civil procedure which might be unfair to a party. It is thus important to be represented by counsel, especially in a case involving complicated law, such as that involved with jail neglect and abuse.

Written By: Dean Malone

Dean Malone

Dean Malone is the founder of Law Offices of Dean Malone, P.C., a jail neglect civil rights law firm. Mr. Malone earned his bachelor's degree at the University of Texas at Dallas, graduating summa cum laude with a 4.0 GPA, and from Baylor University School of Law with a general civil litigation concentration. Mr. Malone served in several staff positions for the Baylor Law Review, including executive editor. Mr. Malone is an experienced trial lawyer, trying a number of cases to jury verdict and also handling arbitrations through final hearing. He heads the jail neglect section of his law firm, in which lawyers litigate cases involving serious injury and death resulting from jail neglect and abuse. Lawyers frequently refer cases to Mr. Malone due to his focus on this very complicated civil rights practice area.