CPD Course:
Obtaining and Setting
Aside Default Judgments
- The Laws, Procedures
and Pitfalls

Dr. Roger So is a Barrister-at-Law, a Chartered Engineer, an experienced accredited mediator, an arbitrator and an adjudicator.  He is on the List of Mediators and List of Arbitrators administered by the Hong Kong Bar Association, and the List of Arbitrators and Mediators maintained by the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers.  He is also a Fellow member of the Hong Kong Institute of Arbitrators and a Corporate Member of the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers.

Dr. So has a broad civil and criminal practice, including general commercial disputes, shareholders’ disputes, property disputes, building management disputes, matrimonial and family disputes, personal injuries disputes, construction disputes, etc.  He regularly appears for the prosecution and defence in criminal cases.  He has served as the legal advisor to a Disciplinary Tribunal in addition to handling a number of civil proceedings.  Prior to becoming a barrister, he has over 20 years of engineering and project management experience specialising in the design and construction of railway extensions in Hong Kong and overseas.

His academic credentials include Doctor of Business Administration (The University of Newcastle, Australia), PCLL, JD, MA in Arbitration & Disputes Resolution, and BSc (Hon) Engineering.  Apart from acting as the mediator, Dr. So has also served as mediation coach to mediation courses offered by the Shue Yan University and has provided mediation training to the Shantou University Law School.

Dr. So has delivered over 25 CPD seminars (2-hour or 3-hour each) accredited by the Law Society of Hong Kong and/or the Hong Kong Mediation Accreditation Association Limited.  Besides, he has published two journal articles on property in human tissues and is a regular contributor to the Building Management Journal, in which he has published 19 Chinese journal articles on Water Seepage Claims, Interlocutory Injunctions and various building management issues.  He is also the Annotator of the Annotated Ordinance, Cap 319, Foreign Judgments (Reciprocal Enforcement).

A default judgment can be regarded as a windfall to the plaintiff and such encounter is not uncommon.  Default Judgments can be easily obtained.  But if it is not performed with the necessary rigour, it may be refused or even if granted liable to set aside, incurring unnecessary costs and delay in the main suit.

On the other hand, faced with a default judgment the defendant is akin to having the Sword of Damocles hanging over his head and would be keen to have it set aside as soon as possible.  Yet to set aside a default judgment the defendant has to fulfil certain procedural and legal requirements, failing which the consequence would be detrimental - default judgment remains in force, or set aside on harsh conditions such as requiring him to pay the claimed amount into court.

This course is intended to provide a concise and yet comprehensive coverage of the laws and procedures in this area, supplement with some practical guidelines against the pitfalls in obtaining and setting aside a default judgment.

At the end of the course, participants should be able to:

• Understand the legal principles and procedures governing the granting of default judgments;
• Understand the legal principles and procedures governing the setting aside of default judgments;
• Appreciate the lessons learnt from selected case studies; and
• Assess the likely issues in setting aside a default judgment and resisting such application.

• Introduction
• Legal principles and procedures on obtaining a default judgment
• Irregular vs. Regular Default Judgments
• Legal principles and procedures on setting aside an irregular default judgment
• Legal principles and procedures on setting aside a regular default judgment
• The criteria on whether to impose conditions on setting aside a default judgment
• Illustration
• Pitfalls and Guidelines to avoid them
• Questions and answers