Judgment

A decision by a court or competent tribunal on the facts presented to it and/or the law in question is known as a judgment. A judgment is arrived at after a full hearing in a particular case, and is crafted by the court or tribunal based on the facts and/or law and the circumstances at issue. To decide a particular case, the judgment applies common law or statutory law to the facts. Judgments can be either interlocutory or final. An interlocutory judgment is one made by a judge with the court' specific intention that there be time for appeal to a higher appellate court before final judgment is made. A final judgment is the final rendered decision after all parties have presented their cases before the court.

Each judgment determines the rights and duties of the parties to a lawsuit. A judgment may include an injunction, which is an order that directs a party to specifically do something, as compared with simply deciding a monetary penalty or ownership rights.

A judgment is only effective if it is made after the completion of legally mandated proceedings (after due deliberation and inquiry). Therefore, in the event a court did not have jurisdiction in a case or failed to hear all the facts in a case, its judgment could be nullified as inappropriate and/or premature.

Judgments apply only to the litigants (the parties) in the case and do not extend to others. Laws affecting nonparties are generally relegated exclusively to legislatures, and not to courts.

There are two basic types of judgments in civil (non-criminal) cases:

• 1.
  When the facts are admitted by the parties and only the law is in dispute, the resulting decision is a judgment on demurrer.
• 2.
  When the law is admitted and only the facts are disputed, the resulting decision is a judgment on a verdict.

A summary judgment is a specific form of judgment where the defendant (the party being sued or prosecuted) asks the court to decide in its favor because the plaintiff (the moving party or accuser) has not presented enough facts or law on which the lawsuit or prosecution could be decided. A motion for summary judgment is generally made immediately after a court has received all initial papers on a case and is decided prior to a trial. If the defendant wins its summary judgment motion, then he or she wins the case and the lawsuit or prosecution is ended.