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Washington rules and statutes regarding defaults are very similar to the federal rules of civil procedure. The main difference is that in Washington, a judge is required to enter the judgment in the amount demanded in the complaint when the defendant fails to answer, appear or otherwise defend within the statutory time limitation period. In order to get a default judgment vacated, the defendant must establish both a meritorious defense and excusable neglect.

Excusable neglect by a government agency is virtually impossible and apprroximately one year after I was entitled to the default judgment, the county claimed they had never even investigated the allegations in my complaint (I've got that in an affidavit of the deputy prosecutor who intially represented the county in the lawsuit). They didn't have to investigate because they knew damn well everything I alleged was true. If they had actually created a report of an investigation, it would have been discoverable pursuant to a public records request and they couldn't risk that. Based on the principle of collateral estoppel, I could choose which position they were stuck with. In this case, it should have made no difference. If they did not investigate, they could not possibly have establish a meritorious defense, could they?

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I forgot to mention that unlike the federal rules which do not permit default judgments to be entered against the U.S. government, Washington governments do not have that benefit, and not court has claimed they do.