necessary parties
Essential lawsuit participants
Necessary parties are individuals or entities who must be included in a lawsuit because the case cannot be fairly resolved without them.
Courts require their joinder when they have interests so connected to the dispute that proceeding in their absence would prejudice them or leave the existing parties without complete relief: The bank was deemed a necessary party to the foreclosure action.
Distinguished from indispensable parties, whose absence requires dismissal, and permissive parties, whose joinder is optional.
- intervenorOne entering another's affair
- stakeholderParty with an interest
- obligorOne bound by contract
- joinderJoining of legal matters
- plaintiffCivil case initiator
defendant · claimant · privity · compulsory · indispensable · beneficiary · trustee · guarantor · creditor · debtor · joint venture · petitioner · respondent · legal standing · due process · injunction · interested · class action
- litigation partiesplaintiffs, defendants, litigants, petitioners, respondents