QUESTION

Federal Appeal

Asked on Mar 12th, 2014 on Civil Litigation - California
More details to this question:
I filed suit in Federal Court against 6 defendants. I received a default against 2 of them. However, without cause, the Court vacated my defaults. I would like to appeal that order. Is this possible.
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1 ANSWER

Appellate Practice Attorney serving New York, NY
In Federal Court you generally do not have the right to appeal from interlocutory orders, that is orders which do not finally determine cases (not necessarily the entire case, but at least as to one defendant), until the end of the case.  An order vacating a default is an interlocutory order.  You can seek reconsideration of the order, meaning you ask the same judge to reconsider his/her decision, but you have to be able to point to some law or fact the judge overlooked, some intervening change in the law, and/or some new evidence you have which was not available at the time of the decision. I know you didn't ask, but in my experience, it is not worth the effort.  Courts are loath to default grant defaults, and extremely unlikely to reverse themselves once they have vacated a default. 
Answered on Mar 12th, 2014 at 3:42 PM

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