A contribution claim is a claim brought by one or more defendants to a lawsuit for money damages brought by a

plaintiff A plaintiff ( Π in legal shorthand) is the party who initiates a lawsuit (also known as an ''action'') before a court. By doing so, the plaintiff seeks a legal remedy. If this search is successful, the court will issue judgment in favor of t ...

. A contribution claim asserts the party (usually a defendant) is entitled to "contribution" from a third party for any money damages awarded to the plaintiff. For example, if a plaintiff sues a

homeowner Owner-occupancy or home-ownership is a form of housing tenure in which a person, called the owner-occupier, owner-occupant, or home owner, owns the home in which they live. The home can be a house, such as a single-family house, an apartment, c ...

for

damages At common law, damages are a remedy in the form of a monetary award to be paid to a claimant as compensation for loss or injury. To warrant the award, the claimant must show that a breach of duty has caused foreseeable loss. To be recognised at ...

caused by a garage door, the defendant homeowner could add a third party, the

manufacturer Manufacturing is the creation or production of goods with the help of equipment, labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of secondary sector of the economy. The term may refer to ...

of the garage door to contribute to any damages awarded to the plaintiff according to the proportionate share of responsibility, liability, or fault assigned to the homeowner and the manufacturer by the

jury A jury is a sworn body of people (jurors) convened to hear evidence and render an impartial verdict (a finding of fact on a question) officially submitted to them by a court, or to set a penalty or judgment. Juries developed in England du ...

. In most cases, contribution claims are brought like the original lawsuit itself. The claim must be personally served on the new, third party defendant, by the third party plaintiff (the defendant bringing the claim for contribution

relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term '' relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that th ...

). In contrast, a

counter-claim In a court of law, a party's claim is a counterclaim if one party asserts claims in response to the claims of another. In other words, if a plaintiff initiates a lawsuit and a defendant responds to the lawsuit with claims of their own against th ...

asserts that the party (usually a defendant) is entitled to offset the damages awarded to plaintiff by the proportionate share of any responsibility, liability, or fault assigned to the plaintiff by the jury. Finally, a

cross-claim A crossclaim is a claim asserted between codefendants or coplaintiffs in a case and that relates to the subject of the original claim or counterclaim according to ''Black's Law Dictionary''. A cross claim is filed against someone who is a co-de ...

is the same as a counter-claim or contribution claim, except that it is asserted by a defendant against other defendants. Counter-claims and cross claims do not require personal service because no new parties are being added to the lawsuit. In some

state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

court systems The judiciary (also known as the judicial system, judicature, judicial branch, judiciative branch, and court or judiciary system) is the system of courts that adjudicates legal disputes/disagreements and interprets, defends, and applies the law ...

, a contribution claim must be opened as a new case, and thus the defendant must pay for a filing fee,

docket Docket may refer to: * Docket (court), the official schedule of proceedings in lawsuits pending in a court of law. *Agenda (meeting) or docket, a list of meeting activities in the order in which they are to be taken up *Receipt A receipt (a ...

number, or

index number In Statistics, Economics and Finance, an index is a statistical measure of change in a representative group of individual data points. These data may be derived from any number of sources, including company performance, prices, productivity, an ...

. In other states, however, no additional fee is required.

References

Tort law Lawsuits {{law-term-stub

See also

References