A party who does not appear at a hearing in a German civil court can lose without the case being heard. The court issues a Versäumnisurteil, a judgment by default. The law sets no waiting period. By custom, courts wait 10 to 15 minutes after the case is called. On 5 July 2013, a hearing at the regional court of Dessau-Roßlau was set for 10 a.m. The judge issued a default judgment that dismissed the claim. The plaintiff’s lawyer entered the courtroom at 10:04 and objected that the customary wait had not been kept. The plaintiff then asked for the judge to be removed for bias. In 2014 the Higher Regional Court of Naumburg upheld the rejection of that request. It found that the judge’s view, that a default judgment may follow directly after the case is called, could be called mistaken, but that it was not a sign of bias.