[suijuris]

Something worth looking into - possibly a way to develop a simple administrative process that will be recognized by the courts as complete and binding. Something to study on...



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It is very usual, in order to strengthen a creditor's security, for the debtor to execute a warrant of attorney to some attorney named by the creditor, empowering him to confess a judgment by either of the ways just now mentioned (by nihil dicit, cognovit actionem, or non sum informatus) in an action of debt to be brought by the creditor against the debtor for the specific sum due: which judgment, when confessed, is absolutely complete and binding; provided the same (as is also required in all other judgments) be regularly docquetted. . . . 3 W. Blackstone, Commentaries *397 (footnote omitted).



Cognovit notes (or confessions of judgment) are an ancient security device and have long been recognized by Pennsylvania law. See Swarb v. Lennox, 405 U.S. 191, 193, 31 L. Ed. 2d 138, 92 S. Ct. 767 (1972).



[a] confession of judgment constitutes a voluntary submission to the jurisdiction of the court, and it gives by consent, and without the service of process, a result which could otherwise be obtained only by process through a formal proceeding; it constitutes but one of the ways by which a person may be sued. In re Ashe, 712 F.2d 864 (3rd Cir. 07/08/1983)



The record of the entry of a judgment by a prothonotary, under a power contained in the instrument on which judgment is confessed, is . . . regarded as a record of the court, having all the qualities of a judgment on a verdict. A judgment entered by the prothonotary under a warrant of attorney, in legal effect, is the same as if the judgment had been entered by the court, and it has all the qualities and effect of a judgment on a verdict. In re Ashe, 712 F.2d 864 (3rd Cir. 07/08/1983)