“Judged by Default” in Labor Trial

“Judged by default” is the total inactivity of the procedural individual that was legally notified to trial and deliberately does not answer said call. It should be noted at this point that, regardless of the foregoing, the hearings would be held even if the parties do not attend.

The time to declare the “judged by default” in a labor trial will be after the settlement proceeding, since in the demand and exceptions stages the worker will expose his claim, ratifying it, clarifying it or modifying it, specifying its claims. It is worth mentioning that only at this stage can such modifications or clarifications be made to the demand.

Once the claim was exposed by the worker, the defendant will proceed to give a response to it, delivering in that precise moment, a copy to its opponent.

However, if the defendant decides not to attend the hearing and therefore does not respond to the claim, the “judged by default” legal concept is constituted, since the pure and simple denial of the right to not answer the facts imposed on the defendant implies the confession of the facts. In addition to the aforementioned, the Board will consider the claim answered in an affirmative way.

Once the lawsuit and exceptions period it’s over, attendance to the offering and admission of evidence hearing will be requested. If the parties agree with the facts and the controversy is reduced to a single law point, or if otherwise the worker or the company did not appear at trial they will lose their right to offer evidence and it will be declared closed, carrying the process on to the resolution.

The fact that the defendant does not appear in court, does not answer the complaint and does not offer the relevant evidence to contradict the facts imputed to it, makes it possible for the authority to determine that these facts are true; gaining greater probabilities to be creditor to a condemnatory sentence, dictated by the responsible authority, in this case, by the pertinent Conciliation and Arbitration Board.

That’s why, if a labor lawsuit is filed and it is required by the pertinent authority to appear in court, the most viable option will be to appear before the corresponding Conciliation and Arbitration Board, in order to respond in a timely manner to the aforementioned claim; surrender the pertinent evidence and other elements within the trial. Avoiding in this way that the trial goes to “judged by default” losing, this way, the right to answer the suit and offer evidence, which translates into an imminent sentence.