LEGAL ACTIONS- PARTIES

A legal action is incomplete without parties to the action. A court does not entertain a matter where there is no proper parties to the matter. Who then is a party in a action? A party is any legal person who brings a legal action to the court of law. In every legal action/case/suit/matter/litigation, there must be a party or parties. Where a case is not brought by a person recognized by law, the court strikes out the party or the entire case. Reason being that the issue of party is sacrosanct to a law suit. Litigation can be civil or criminal, so we are going to discuss the various parties in a civil and criminal litigation- the prosecutor, Accused, Plaintiff, Defendant, Petitioner, Respondent, Applicant, Appellant…

Prosecutor: The prosecutor is the party that institutes a criminal proceeding. Apart from the individual victim of a crime, criminal act is deemed committed against the government( the State or the Federation). Thus, crimes are prosecuted by either the State Government or the Federal Government. The Police is also empowered to prosecute crimes. With reference to the Legislative List, where a crime is committed against the State, the prosecution takes place at the High Court of the State. Likewise, a crime against the Federation is prosecuted at the Federal High Court. The Police, on the other hand, prosecute criminal cases at the Magistrate Court. The duty of the prosecutor is to prosecute crime committed against the victim on behalf of the victim as an individual and the society at large. The reasoning behind this is that if a criminal goes unpunished, there is a likelihood that he will extend his criminality to the detriment of the entire society.

Accused: This is the party against whom a criminal action is brought. Thus, a party prosecuted/charged in any court of law with a crime is called the Accused. However, some States ( e.g. Lagos State) use the word “Defendant” rather than ‘Accused’. Reason being that a person accused of a crime is deemed innocent by the law until proven guilty ( Section 36(5) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria(as amended), 1999). The court an accused will be charged to is dependent on the nature of the crime alleged and the prosecutor prosecuting the case( see my explanation above on the prosecutor). An accused may plead ‘guilty’ or ‘not guilty’. Where an accused pleads ‘not guilty’, the law mandates the prosecutor to prove his guilt beyond reasonable doubt, otherwise, the accused will be discharged and acquitted by the court.

Plaintiff: This is the party that brings/institutes a civil action before a law court. The Plaintiff is the aggrieved party, he is the party who feels he has been wronged and therefore seeks remedy to the wrong done to him. To this end, he files an action against the person who has wronged him. Some States now use the word ‘Claimant’ in the stead of ‘plaintiff’. It thus behoves the plaintiff to establish credible evidence to prove that the party he brought to court is liable to his claim(s).

Defendant: This is the party against whom a criminal or civil action is brought. Like I said earlier above, an accused is also called a Defendant in a criminal litigation(see my explanation above on the accused). In civil matters on the other hand, the Defendant is the party on the opposing side. He is the party a civil action is instituted against. As the word denotes, the Defendant disproves his liability to the claim against him. This he does by establishing evidence countering the Plaintiff/Claimant’s claim against him.

Petitioner: Just like the Plaintiff, the  Petitioner is a party that brings/institutes a civil action in the law court but a particular category of civil actions- divorce or election cases. In other words, parties that file/institute election cases are called ‘petitioners’. For instance, Obi is the Petitioner in a divorce suit he brought against Ada, his wife. Also, Alhaji Tajudeen is the Petitioner in an election matter he brought against Chief Okoye.

Applicant: Some cases are commenced/instituted in the form of applications or motions. A party who brings such an application to court is called the Applicant. An application may be made while a case is already in court or a case may be commenced/brought by way of application. An applicant usually seeks the order of court on a particular issue or the order of court compelling a party to do or refrain from doing an act. Here is a short scenario- If ‘A'’ is constituting himself a nuisance in the premises where you both reside as tenants, you may make an application to court for an order restraining ‘A’ from any further act of nuisance. Thus, by this scenario, you are called the Applicant.

Appellant: An appellant is the party who brings an appeal before a higher court against the decision of a lower court on his case/matter. In other words, this is the party who does not agree with the judgment given on his case and thus has appealed against the judgment to a higher court.

Respondent: The word ‘Respondent"’ is an umbrella word for the party responding to any of the following- (1) an application brought by an Applicant, (2) a petition brought by a Petitioner,  or (3) an appeal brought by an Appellant. See my explanation above on Applicant, Petitioner and Appellant.

 

Questions, suggestions and contributions are highly welcome. Kindly look up the meanings of the words in bold in my Mini Law Dictionary.

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