Everything about Plaintiff totally explained
A
plaintiff (
Π in
legal shorthand), also known as a
claimant or
complainant, is the party who initiates a
lawsuit (also known as an
action) before a
court. By doing so, the plaintiff seeks a
legal remedy, and if successful, the court will issue
judgment in favor of the plaintiff and make the appropriate
court order (eg. an order for
damages).
In some
jurisdictions the commencement of a lawsuit is done by filing a
summons, claim form and/or a
complaint — these documents are known as
pleadings — that set forth the alleged wrongs committed by the
defendant or defendants with a demand for relief. In other jurisdictions the action is commenced by service of
legal process by delivery of these documents on the defendant by a process server; they're only filed with the court subsequently with an
affidavit from the process server that they'd been given to the defendant(s) according to the rules of
civil procedure.
Not all lawsuits are
plenary actions, involving a full
trial on the merits of the case. There are also simplified procedures, often called proceedings, in which the parties are termed
petitioner instead of plaintiff, and
respondent instead of defendant. There are also cases that don't technically involve two sides, such as petitions for specific statutory relief that require judicial approval; in those cases there are no respondents, just a petitioner.
A plaintiff identified by name in a
class action is called a
named plaintiff.
The party to whom the complaint is against is the
defendant; or in the case of a petition, a respondent. Case names are usually given with the plaintiff first, as in
Plaintiff v. Defendant.
United Kingdom
In
England and
Wales, the term
Claimant has replaced Plaintiff after the
Civil Procedure Rules 1998 came into force in
26 April 1999.
(External Link
) In
Scotland, a plaintiff is referred to as a
pursuer and a defendant as a defender.
Elsewhere
In
Hong Kong and the
United States, a plaintiff is still referred to as a plaintiff, and Americans traditionally limit the application of terms such as "claimant" and "claim form" to
insurance and
administrative law. After exhausting remedies available through an
insurer or
government agency, an American who turns to the courts would file a complaint and become a plaintiff.
Etymology
The word
plaintiff can be traced to the
1278 and stems from the Anglo-French word
pleintif meaning 'complaining' from pleint. It is identical with plaintive at first and it's this form that receded into legal usage with the -iff spelling in the 1400's.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Plaintiff'.
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