Party (law)

Person or group composing a single entity for the purposes of the law

A party is an individual or group of individuals that compose a single entity which can be identified as one for the purposes of the law.

## Parties to litigation

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Parties include:

* plaintiff (person filing suit),
* defendant (person sued or charged with a crime),
* petitioner (files a petition asking for a court ruling),
* respondent (usually in opposition to a petition or an appeal),
* [applicant]] (files an application which may require a ruling on it)
* cross-complainant (a defendant who sues someone else in the same lawsuit), or
* cross-defendant (a person sued by a cross-complainant).[1]

A person who only appears in the case as a witness is not considered a party.

Courts use various terms to identify the role of a particular party in civil litigation, usually identifying the party that brings a lawsuit as the plaintiff, or, in older American cases, the party of the first part; and the party against whom the case was brought as the defendant, or, in older American cases, the party of the second part. In a criminal case in Nigeria and some other countries the parties are called prosecutor and defendant.

## See also

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* Erga omnes
* Ex parte proceeding
* Inter partes proceeding
* Intervention (law)

## References

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1. ^ Lehman, Jeffrey; Phelps, Shirelle (2005). West's Encyclopedia of American Law, Vol. 7 (2 ed.). Detroit: Thomson/Gale. p. 374\. ISBN 9780787663742.

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