In the United States, a friendly suit or collusive suit is most often used when two parties desire or require judicial recognition of a settlement agreement, and so one sues the other despite the lack of conflict between them. The law condones this practice because there are several benefits to settling a

lawsuit - A lawsuit is a proceeding by a party or parties against another in the civil court of law. The archaic term "suit in law" is found in only a small number of laws still in effect today. The term "lawsuit" is used in reference to a civil act ...

as opposed to settling a claim outside of a lawsuit. First, if one of the parties to the claim is a minor, they usually cannot settle the claim without the appointment of a guardian ''ad litem'' to review and accept the settlement. Once the suit is filed, and the settlement is reviewed by the ad litem who considers the best interest of the child, the parties can then file a joint motion for the court to render

judgment Judgement (or US spelling judgment) is also known as ''adjudication'', which means the evaluation of evidence to make a decision. Judgement is also the ability to make considered decisions. The term has at least five distinct uses. Aristotle s ...

, which would then be binding on all parties regardless of their minority. When there is a judgment, the parties also gain the defense of ''

res judicata ''Res judicata'' (RJ) or ''res iudicata'', also known as claim preclusion, is the Latin term for "a matter decided" and refers to either of two concepts in both civil law and common law legal systems: a case in which there has been a final jud ...

'' if sued again on the same topic. Friendly suits are generally not within the jurisdiction of the

federal judiciary of the United States The federal judiciary of the United States is one of the three branches of the federal government of the United States organized under the United States Constitution and laws of the federal government. The U.S. federal judiciary consists primaril ...

, as they do not constitute a true "case or controversy" under Article III of the

United States Constitution The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, in 1789. Originally comprising seven articles, it delineates the natio ...

; see '' United States v. Johnson''. In practice, however, friendly suits are rarely explicitly described as such, and they could easily slip into the federal judicial system through some casual omissions. Moreover, the "case or controversy" requirement of Article III does not bind the judiciaries of the states, which are free to impose their own restrictions on friendly suits (or none at all).

References

American legal terminology {{law-term-stub