E2.1. Duration where no defence exists

93.	Many proceedings do not raise any disputed issues of fact or law. The defendant in such cases may simply have defaulted in some credit transaction and has no defence. The court's machinery is invoked as a means of debt enforcement, to realise a security or to manage an insolvency. The defendant often appears in court merely to ask for time to try to meet his obligations. Where he fails to meet them, the proceedings concern themselves with setting appropriate terms for enforcement.
94.	Cases falling within this description include many debt collections listed as High Court Actions ("HCAs"); mortgage enforcement proceedings listed as High Court Miscellaneous Proceedings ("HCMPs"); and insolvency cases involving Bankruptcies and Company Windings-Up. It is obvious that in such cases, the period between institution and resolution of the proceedings will generally be much shorter than for contested proceedings. The case ends rapidly with a judgment by default or by consent; or summary judgment, or judgment at the hearing of an originating summons (in mortgage proceedings); or with an order made in insolvency proceedings. The pressures which such cases exert on the system are therefore relatively short-lived and felt not so much by the judges as by masters and the Registry staff. They involve handling a large volume of cases.