Rule 55.Default.

When a party fails to appear, answer, or otherwise defend, and that's shown by affidavit or otherwise, the clerk enters a default once the party seeking it serves an application on everyone, including the party in default; the clerk can make that entry no sooner than seven days after serving the application. If the claim is for a sum certain and the defaulted party isn't an infant, incompetent person, or someone in active military service (or the applicant can't determine military status and says so), the clerk itself can enter a default judgment for the amount due plus costs and fees — but only where every defendant in the case has been defaulted; otherwise the application goes to the court instead.

Applying to the court for a default judgment requires a memorandum explaining when and against whom the default was entered, an affidavit addressing the defaulted party's military-service status, and — if that party has already appeared in the case — proof that written notice of the application went out at least three days before a decision, unless the party failed to show up for trial, in which case the court can proceed without that notice. The court holds whatever hearings are needed to fix damages or verify the claim, and the same safeguards apply whether the party seeking default is a plaintiff, a third-party plaintiff, or a party asserting a counterclaim or cross-claim. No default judgment can be entered against the state or one of its officers or agencies without evidence establishing the claim, and a default judgment against multiple defendants generally requires that all of them be in default (or that the non-defaulting defendants' defenses wouldn't help the defaulting one). A default entered against a party — whether by the clerk or the court — can be set aside for good cause, and a default judgment already entered can be set aside under the same standard used to reopen any other judgment.