What is Litigation?

What is Litigation?

When some party has wronged you, the court system can help you find a resolution. Litigation is the process of using the courts to resolve disputes between parties. It is used in both civil and criminal matters, as an attempt to enforce your rights. There are two types of litigation: Criminal Litigation, where the government prosecutes someone for a crime; and Civil Litigation, where some private party initiates a lawsuit against another party (usually a company or individual).

Stages of Litigation

There’s really three stages to litigation. First, the plaintiff (also called the initiating party) files ‘the complaint.’ This document explains what the defendant allegedly did wrong, along with a requested sum of compensation or means to remedy the situation.

Commonly, the opposing party will dispute validity, and/or sometimes may even file countersuit. Next, comes ‘discovery,’ which is where both sides will research and exchange information about the claim. This stage is usually very long (time consuming) and very expensive, because it requires both sides to obtain testimony from witnesses, collect all kinds of physical documentation, and complete other tasks. It’s like a constant search process.

Lastly, comes the trial. While this is what most people automatically jump to when they think of litigation, some (but usually most) litigation won’t make it to trial. A trial happens only when one or both parties cannot reach an agreement beforehand.

The Lifespan of Litigation

In the end, the winning party will get a “judgment,” which will be the final outcome to the lawsuit (unless there’s an appeal). Sometimes it’s a monetary judgment declaring what sum of money is owed to the winning party, but it can also be an injunction, which compels the losing party to do/not do something. Very rarely will a judgment will have both.

The amount of time it takes to litigate something varies substantially. Civil litigation can last several years, although matters are usually resolved in far less time. By contrast, criminal litigation gets resolved a lot faster, usually within one year or less.

Appeals After Litigation

While the trial courts decide the outcome of a litigation matter, afterwards a party may appeal. If this should happen, an appeals court won’t give your trial a do-over, but can only review for serious errors.

Appeals can happen for both types of cases. If it’s a criminal matter, an appeal happens usually because a defendant thinks something happened which made them receive an unfair trial. Similarly, for civil matters, an appeal usually happens when the losing party believes the trial court did something to otherwise materially affect upon the outcome of the case.

Either party automatically has the right to one appeal, but any appeals after that are left to the discretion of the court of highest authority.