lawsuit

Plurallawsuits

Formslawsuits, lawsuiting, lawsuited

1. 1
   nouncountable

   A civil case in which two or more parties disagree and one of them brings the matter before a court for resolution.

   The shareholders brought a lawsuit seeking compensation for their losses.

   After months of negotiation, both companies dropped their lawsuits and reached a settlement.

   Similarsuit, case, action

   Note

   The word joins law and suit, the term for a claim pressed in court. It belongs to civil disputes between private parties, a plaintiff against a defendant, not to criminal prosecution. Its usual verbs are file and bring: one files a lawsuit against someone, and The Economist in 2013 wrote of a monopoly over bringing environmental lawsuits.

2. 2
   verbtransitive

   To begin a civil legal action against a person or organization by bringing the matter before a court.

   The residents chose to lawsuit the factory over the polluted river.

   Investors may lawsuit the firm if the financial disclosures prove false.

   Similarsue

   Note

   Here the noun is turned straight into a verb, with regular forms: lawsuits, lawsuiting, lawsuited. Charles Lucey's Ireland and the Irish (1970) uses it with against, in "lawsuited against the tenants," rather than with a direct object. That construction keeps the verb close to the familiar phrase a lawsuit against someone, and it is worth using when lawsuit the factory sounds too abrupt.

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