Lawsuit

==Terminology==
During the 18th and 19th centuries, it was common for lawyers to speak of bringing an "action" at law and a "suit" in [[Equity (law)|equity]]. An example of that distinction survives today in the codified text of the [[Third Enforcement Act]]. The fusion of common law and equity in England in the [[Judicature Acts]] of 1873 and 1875 led to the collapse of that distinction, so it became possible to speak of a "lawsuit." In the [[United States]], the [[Federal Rules of Civil Procedure]] (1938) abolished the distinction between actions at law and suits in equity in federal practice, in favor of a single form referred to as a "civil action."

In [[England and Wales]] the term "claim" is far more common; the person initiating proceedings is called the [[claimant]].<ref name="Steadman_Page_23">{{cite book |last1=Steadman |first1=Jean |title=Drafting Legal Documents in Plain English |date=2013 |publisher=Giuffrè Editore |location=Milan |isbn=9788814184772 |page=23 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FC9plSpeRroC&pg=PA23 |access-date=31 December 2022}}</ref> England and Wales began to turn away from traditional common law terminology with the [[Rules of the Supreme Court]] (1883), in which the "statement of claim" and "defence" replaced the traditional complaint and answer as the pleadings by which parties placed their case at issue before the trial court. 

American terminology is slightly different, in that the term "claim" refers only to a particular count or cause of action alleged in a complaint.<ref name="Steadman_Page_23" />  Similarly, "defense" refers to only one or more affirmative defenses alleged in an answer.<ref name="Steadman_Page_18">{{cite book |last1=Steadman |first1=Jean |title=Drafting Legal Documents in Plain English |date=2013 |publisher=Giuffrè Editore |location=Milan |isbn=9788814184772 |page=18 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FC9plSpeRroC&pg=PA18 |access-date=31 December 2022}}</ref> Americans also use "claim" to describe an extrajudicial demand filed with an insurer or administrative agency.<ref name="Steadman_Page_23" /> If the claim is denied, then the claimant, policyholder, or applicant files a lawsuit with the courts to seek review of that decision, and from that point forward participates in the lawsuit as a plaintiff. In other words, the terms "claimant" and "plaintiff" carry substantially different connotations of formality in American English, in that only the latter risks an award of [[Court costs|costs]] in favor of an adversary in a lawsuit.

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.