A confession of judgment is a written agreement in which the defendant in a lawsuit admits liability and accepts the amount of agreed-upon damages that must be paid to the plaintiff. A confession of judgment may be filed as a court judgment against the defendant who does not pay or perform as agreed. Such an agreement attempts to minimize the need to resort to legal proceedings to resolve a dispute. Careful consideration needs to be given to signing an agreement for confession of judgment, since doing so signs away rights to contest a claim in a future dispute.
The following is an example of a state statute dealing with confession of judgment:
"All agreements, contracts, or stipulations to confess judgment in any of the courts of this state, to be sued in any county other than that fixed by the venue statutes of this state, or to authorize another to confess judgment in any of the courts of this state made before the commencement of the action in which such judgments are so confessed shall be void, and all judgments by such unlawful confession, or otherwise taken or had in violation of this section, shall be set aside and annulled on motion if made within six months after the entry of such judgment."
