litigation

noun

lit·​i·​ga·​tion ˌli-tə-ˈgā-shən 

plural litigations

: the act, process, or practice of settling a dispute in a court of law : the act or process of litigating

an issue that has been in litigation for years

an attorney who specializes in the litigation of property disputes

The American Judicial System generally limits the filing of lawsuits to individuals with a personal stake in the litigation, but there are instances when litigants cannot themselves prosecute an action.

—Jonathan Mahler

also : a legal action or proceeding (such as a lawsuit)

"You can't realize how much it costs to run one of these litigations. To get a battery of lawyers into a courtroom and do all the planning … and so on costs $500,000."

—Gordon Gould

Examples of litigation in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The lawsuit, which does not specify an amount for the damages, seeks funding for a medical monitoring program and litigation expenses. —Natalie Kainz, NBC News, 29 Nov. 2023

That issue may yet be resolved by regulation and litigation. —Gene Maddaus, Variety, 29 Nov. 2023

Some of the issues presented in the litigation could decide whether creators are compensated for the use of their material to train human-mimicking chatbots that have the potential to undercut their labor. —Winston Cho, The Hollywood Reporter, 21 Nov. 2023

During her deposition as part of the JPMorgan litigation, Mrs de Jongh was asked about seeking enrollment in English classes for women at Epstein’s request. —Ava Benny-Morrison, Fortune, 17 Nov. 2023

On Monday, the crypto news website The Block reported that BlackRock had applied to introduce an E.T.F. tracking the price of XRP, a digital currency that has been the subject of years of litigation between its issuer, Ripple, and the S.E.C. XRP’s priced jumped by more than 10 percent. —David Yaffe-Bellany, New York Times, 16 Nov. 2023

If not for the litigation, Williams and his family would likely never have learned about the finding. —Eyal Press, The New Yorker, 13 Nov. 2023

By 2022 there had been 34 global climate cases brought on behalf of plaintiffs ages 25 and younger – part of a global climate litigation explosion, according to Columbia University’s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law. —Stephanie Hanes, The Christian Science Monitor, 20 Nov. 2023

But the tone shifted when the litigation dragged on into a second year. —Ava Benny-Morrison, Fortune, 17 Nov. 2023

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Word History

First Known Use

1612, in the meaning defined above

Phrases Containing litigation

• in litigation

• in litigation