If a dispute is not settled by agreement between the disputing parties, it will eventually be heard and decided by a judge and/or jury in a court. A lawsuit before a court is commonly referred to as litigation. In fact, litigation includes all stages before, during and after a trial.
Litigation may be used to resolve a dispute between private individuals, an individual and a business, or between two businesses. Litigation sometimes involves disputes between an individual or business and a government agency, or between two governmental bodies.
In the UK, the majority of pre-trial work is carried out by a solicitor before the case is passed on to a barrister, who will represent either the claimant or the defendant during a hearing or a trial. In the USA, the same attorney may deaI with the case from the time the client first makes contact through to the trial and enforcement stages. The steps in between these two stages typically include an attempt to reach a settlement before and/or after filing a lawsuit and pleadings, entering the discovery phase and then proceeding to trial. At the end of a trial, the court will deliver its judgment and pass an order, which the winning party's counsel and/or the court may help the winning party to enforce.
Criminal matters are also considered litigation, and many civil litigation lawyers also deal with criminal cases, as well as some forms of alternative dispute resolution (ADR).
disputing parties-спорящая сторона
