If a defendant fails to respond to a claim, what may the claimant obtain?

• A. Stay of proceedings.
• B. Default judgment.
• C. Dismissal of the claim.
• D. Costs budgetary order.

Answer: (B)

When a defendant does not respond to a claim, the claimant may obtain a default judgment. This is a court order entered in the claimant’s favor without a trial because the defendant failed to acknowledge service or file a defense within the allowed time. A default judgment resolves the claim based on what has been admitted or proven in the claim, and it can include the amount claimed and, in appropriate cases, costs, enabling enforcement to proceed without a hearing. The other options don’t fit this situation: a stay of proceedings pauses the case for specific reasons, not simply because there was no response; dismissal of the claim would require a different procedural basis (such as abuse or non-compliance); and a costs budgetary order deals with how costs are managed in the action rather than determining liability.