Meaning & use
litigate
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Meanings
verbintransitivelegal
To bring a disagreement before a court, or to take part in a lawsuit as one of the sides.
Grammar: No object; often followed by over or about: they litigated over the land for years.
Patterns
- litigate over something
- litigate against someone
The two neighbors chose to litigate over the fence instead of talking it through.
Small businesses often cannot afford to litigate against a giant corporation.
Rather than settle, the family decided to litigate and let a judge decide.
verbtransitivelegal
To argue and contest a claim or issue in court proceedings.
Grammar: Takes an object: litigate a claim.
Patterns
- litigate a case
- litigate a claim
The firm has litigated dozens of patent disputes in federal courts.
The question of who owned the painting was litigated for nearly a decade.
She trained as a lawyer so she could litigate environmental cases.
Word forms
| third person singular | litigates |
|---|---|
| past tense | litigated |
| past participle | litigated |
| -ing form | litigating |
Common combinations
- litigate a case
- The attorney spent months preparing to litigate the case before a jury.
- litigate over
- The siblings continued to litigate over their father's estate.
- threaten to litigate
- The company threatened to litigate if the competitor kept using its logo.
- willing to litigate
- The tenants were willing to litigate to keep their homes.
- litigate in court
- Both parties would rather negotiate than litigate in court.
Synonyms and how they differ
- sue
- 'Sue' names the act of starting a lawsuit against someone, while 'litigate' covers the whole process of fighting a case in court.
- prosecute
- It usually means a government or its lawyers pursue a criminal charge, whereas 'litigate' mostly concerns civil disputes.
- take to court
- This is the everyday phrase for starting a case, and it sounds less technical than 'litigate'.
Opposites
Word family
- litigation noun
- the process of taking legal action in court
- litigant noun
- a person or party involved in a lawsuit
- litigator noun
- a lawyer who handles cases in court
- litigious adjective
- too ready to start lawsuits
Commonly confused: litigate or mitigate?
litigate vs mitigate
'Mitigate' means to make something less severe, as in mitigate damage. It sounds similar but has nothing to do with courts.
Practice
The two companies could not agree on a price, so they decided to ____ the matter instead of negotiating further.
Choose one answer.
'Litigate' means to fight a dispute in court, which fits the contrast with negotiating. 'Mitigate' sounds similar but means to reduce the seriousness of something.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “litigate”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.