§ 5401 Definition

A foreign judgment is a court decision made in another state or country that New York must legally recognize and respect. The U.S. Constitution requires states to honor valid court decisions from other states, which is called "full faith and credit."

However, not every out-of-state court decision qualifies. Two types are left out of this rule: judgments where the losing party never showed up to court (default judgments), and judgments based on a confession of judgment, where someone agreed in advance to let a court rule against them without a hearing.