A lawsuit is a civil action brought before a court in which the party commencing the action, the plaintiff, seeks a legal remedy, usually for a tort. If the plaintiff is successful, judgment will be given in the plaintiff's favour, and a range of court orders may be issued to enforce a right, impose a penalty, award damages, impose an injunction to prevent an act or compel an act, or to obtain a declaratory judgment to prevent future legal disputes.
It usually involves dispute resolution of private law issues between individuals, business entities or non-profit organizations. However, it may involve public law issues in those jurisdictions that enable the government to be treated as if it were a private party in a lawsuit (as plaintiff or defendant regarding an injury), or that provide the government with a civil cause of action to enforce certain laws rather than criminal prosecution.
Rules of Procedure and
Complications in Lawsuits
Rules of civil procedure govern the
conduct of a lawsuit in the common
law adversarial system of dispute
resolution. Civil procedure is
additionally constrained/informed by
separate statutory laws, case law,
and constitutional provisions that
define the rights of the parties to
a lawsuit (see especially due
process), though the rules will
generally reflect this legal context
on their face. The details of
procedure will differ from
jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and
often from court to court within the
same jurisdiction. The rules are
very important for litigants to
know, however, because they dictate
the timing and progression of the
lawsuit--what may be filed and when
to get what result. Failure to
comply with the procedural rules can
result in serious limitations in
conducting the trial or even
dismissal of the lawsuit.
Though the vast majority of lawsuits
are settled easily and never even
get to trial, they can expand into a
very complicated process. This is
particularly true in federal
systems, where a federal court may
be applying state law or vice versa,
or one state applying the law of
another, and where it additionally
may not be clear which level (or
location) of court actually has
jurisdiction over the claim or
personal jurisdiction over the
defendant. Domestic courts are also
often called upon to apply foreign
law, or to act upon foreign
defendants, over whom they may not,
as a practical matter, even have the
ability to enforce a judgment if the
defendant's assets are outside their
reach.
Lawsuits become additionally
complicated the more parties that
are involved. Within a "single"
lawsuit, there can be any number of
claims and defenses (all based on
numerous laws) between any number of
plaintiffs or defendants, who each
can bring any number of cross-claims
and counterclaims against each other,
and even bring additional parties
into the suit on other side after it
progresses. However, courts
typically have some power to
separate out claims and parties into
separate suits if it is more
efficient to do so, such as if there
is not a sufficient overlap of
factual issues between the various
claims.
The Progress of a Lawsuit
The following is a generalized
description of how a lawsuit may
proceed in a common law jurisdiction:
Pleadings
The lawsuit begins with the
plaintiff filing a complaint with
the court. This complaint will state
that the plaintiff is seeking
damages or equitable relief from a
stated defendant, and what the legal
and factual bases for doing so are.
The clerk of court then issues a
summons, or serves process, upon the
defendant to notify him that he is
being sued and provide him with the
nature of the claims. Once the
defendant receives this notice, he
has a time limit to file a response
explaining his defenses to the
plaintiff's claims, including any
challenges to the court's
jurisdiction, though some courts
impose no limit on certain
jurisdictional challenges.
Usually the pleadings are drafted by
a lawyer, but in many courts a
person can file papers and represent
themselves, which is called
appearing pro se. Many courts have a
pro se clerk to assist people
without lawyers.
Pre-trial
The early stages of the lawsuit may
involve discovery, which is the
ordered exchange of evidence and
statements between the parties based
on what they each expect to argue
during the actual trial. Discovery
is meant to eliminate surprises and
clarify what the lawsuit is about,
and perhaps to make a party realize
they should settle or drop the claim,
all before wasting court resources.
At this point the parties may also
engage in pretrial motion filing in
order to exclude or include
particular legal or factual issues
before trial, by blocking the other
party from presenting a particular
witness or arguing a particular
legal theory.
At the close of discovery, the
parties may pick a jury and then
have a trial by jury. Or, the case
may proceed as a bench trial heard
only by the judge, if the parties
waive a jury trial, or if the right
to a jury trial is not guaranteed
for their particular claim (such as
those under equity in the U.S.) or
for any lawsuits within their
jurisdiction.
Trial and Judgment
The lawsuit may then proceed
similarly to a criminal trial, with
each side presenting witnesses and
submitting evidence, at the close of
which the judge or jury renders
their decision. Generally speaking,
the plaintiff has the burden of
proof in making his claims, which
means that it is up to him to
produce enough evidence to persuade
the judge or jury that his claim
should succeed. The defendant may
have the burden of proof on other
issues, however, such as affirmative
defenses.
There are numerous motions that
either party can file throughout the
lawsuit to terminate it "prematurely"--before
submission to the judge or jury for
final consideration. These motions
attempt to persuade the judge,
through legal argument and sometimes
accompanying evidence, that because
there is no reasonable way that the
other party could legally win, there
is no sense in continuing with the
trial. Motions for summary judgment,
for example, can usually be brought
before, after, or during the actual
presentation of the case. Motions
can also be brought after the close
of a trial to undo a jury verdict
that is contrary to law or against
the weight of the evidence, or to
convince the judge that he should
change his decision or grant a new
trial.
Also, at any time during this
process from the filing of the
complaint to the final judgment, the
plaintiff may withdraw his complaint
and end the whole matter, or the
defendant may agree to a settlement,
which involves a negotiated award
followed also by the plaintiff
withdrawing his complaint and the
settlement entered into the court
record.
Appeal
After a final decision has been made,
either party or both may appeal from
the judgment if they are unhappy
with it (and their jurisdiction
grants the ability). Even the
prevailing party may appeal, if, for
example, they wanted an even larger
award than was granted. The
appellate court (which may be
structured as an intermediate
appellate court and a higher supreme
court) will then affirm the
judgment, refuse to hear it (which
effectively affirms), reverse, or
vacate and remand, which involves
sending the lawsuit back to the
lower trial court to address an
unresolved issue, or possibly for a
whole new trial. Some lawsuits go up
and down the appeals ladder
repeatedly before finally being
resolved.
Enforcement
When there finally is a final
judgment, the plaintiff will likely
be barred under res judicata from
trying to bring the same or similar
claim again against that defendant,
or from relitigating any of the
issues, even under different legal
claims or theories. This prevents a
new trial of the same case with a
different result, or if the
plaintiff won, a repeat trial that
merely multiplies the judgment
against the defendant.
If the judgment is for the plaintiff,
then the defendant must comply under
penalty of law with the judgment,
which will usually be a monetary
award. If the defendant fails to pay,
the court has various powers to
seize any of the defendant's assets
located within its jurisdiction. If
all assets are located elsewhere,
the plaintiff must file another suit
in the appropriate court to seek
enforcement of the other court's
previous judgment. This can be a
difficult task when crossing from a
court in one state or nation to
another, though courts tend to grant
each other respect when there is not
a clear legal rule to the contrary.
A defendant who has no assets in any
jurisdiction is said to be
"judgment-proof." In most cases,
nothing can be done to collect an
award from a moneyless defendant.
Unfortunately for plaintiffs,
imprisonment of an indigent
judgment-proof defendant is simply
not available as an alternative
remedy; debtor's prisons have been
outlawed by statute, constitutional
amendment or international human
rights treaties in the vast majority
of common law jurisdictions.
History of the term "lawsuit"
Today, lawyers in common law
jurisdictions, particularly in the
US, use the terms "lawsuit" and
"civil action" synonymously, but
this was not always the case. During
the 18th and 19th centuries, it was
common for lawyers to speak of
bringing an action at law and a suit
in equity. The unification of law
and equity during the early 20th
century led to the collapse of that
distinction, so it became possible
to speak of a "lawsuit."
In England and Wales the term
"claim" is far more common, the
person initiating proceedings being
the Claimant. In medieval times,
both "action" and "suit" had the
approximate meaning of some kind of
legal proceeding, but an action
terminated when a judgment was
rendered, while a suit also included
the execution of the judgment.