Legal case casesby a title of the form "Claimant v Defendant" (e.g. "Arkell v Pressdram"). Where a legal proceeding does not have formally designated adverse parties, a form such as "In re", "Re" or "In the matter of" is used (e.g. "In re Gault"). The "v" separating the parties is an abbreviation of the Latin versus, but, when spoken in Commonwealth countries, it is normally rendered as "and" or "against" (as in, for example, Charles Dickens' "Jarndyce and Jarndyce"). Where it is considered necessary to protect the anonymity of a natural person, some cases may have one or both parties replaced by
Legal case Legal case A legal case is a dispute between opposing parties resolved by a court, or by some equivalent legal process. A legal case may be either civil or criminal law. In each legal case there is an accuser and one or more defendants. A civil case, more commonly known as a lawsuit or controversy, begins when a plaintiff files a document called a complaint with a court, informing the court of the wrong that the plaintiff has allegedly suffered because of the defendant, and requesting a remedy. The remedy sought may be money, an injunction, which requires the defendant