''Ad litem'' (
Latin
Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
: "for the suit"
) is a term used in
law
Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...
to refer to the appointment by a court of one party to act in a lawsuit on behalf of another party such as a child or an incapacitated adult, who is deemed incapable of representing him or herself. An individual who acts in this capacity is generally called a
guardian ''ad litem'' in such legal proceedings;
in Scotland
IN, In or in may refer to:
Dans
* India (country code IN)
* Indiana, United States (postal code IN)
* Ingolstadt, Germany (license plate code IN)
* In, Russia, a town in the Jewish Autonomous Oblast
Businesses and organizations
* Independen ...
,
curator ''ad litem'' is the equivalent term.
In England and Wales, since the amendment of the
Children Act 1989
The Children Act 1989 (c. 41) is an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom that received royal assent on 16 November 1989 and came into substantial force across all three jurisdictions of the United Kingdom on 14 October 1991. In 1995, for the p ...
established the role of children's guardian, the term is now used only in the term "guardian ''ad litem'' in
Private Law
Private law is that part of a legal system that governs interactions between individual persons. It is distinguished from public law, which deals with relationships between both natural and artificial persons (i.e., organizations) and the st ...
proceedings under rule 9.5. The
United States legal system
The law of the United States comprises many levels of Codification (law), codified and uncodified forms of law, of which the supreme law is the nation's Constitution of the United States, Constitution, which prescribes the foundation of the ...
, which at its inception was based on the English legal system, continues to use the terms "guardian ''ad litem''
and "attorney ''ad litem''. The legal system in the Republic of Ireland also uses the term guardian ''ad litem''.
The term is also used in property
litigation
A lawsuit is a proceeding by one or more parties (the plaintiff or claimant) against one or more parties (the defendant) in a civil court of law. The archaic term "suit in law" is found in only a small number of laws still in effect today. ...
, where a person may be appointed to act on behalf of an
estate in court proceedings, when the estate's proper representatives are unable or unwilling to act.
The term is also sometimes used to refer to a
judge
A judge is a person who wiktionary:preside, presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a judicial panel. In an adversarial system, the judge hears all the witnesses and any other Evidence (law), evidence presented by the barris ...
who participates in only a particular case or a limited set of cases and does not have the same status as the other judges of the court. Such a jurist is more commonly called a judge ''
ad hoc
''Ad hoc'' is a List of Latin phrases, Latin phrase meaning literally for this. In English language, English, it typically signifies a solution designed for a specific purpose, problem, or task rather than a Generalization, generalized solution ...
''. Judges ''ad hoc'' are particularly common in
international court
International courts are formed by treaties between Nation, nations, or by an international organization such as the United Nations – and include ''ad hoc'' tribunals and permanent institutions but exclude any courts arising purely under nationa ...
s, and are fewer in number elsewhere.
The Latin term (''ād lītem'') translates literally as "for the suit"
or "for the proceeding".
See also
*
Citations
References
*
Latin legal terminology
{{Latin-legal-phrase-stub