lawsuit
n. countablen. a legal case that one person or company starts against another in a court of law. It is usually done to get money or to stop someone from doing something wrong.
n. a non-criminal legal proceeding brought by one party against another in a court of law. It typically seeks a civil remedy such as monetary damages or an injunction.
The company faces a major lawsuit over the faulty product.
After the contract was broken, the small business filed a lawsuit to recover their lost profits.
The environmental group initiated a class-action lawsuit against the manufacturer, alleging that decades of chemical runoff had contaminated the local groundwater and caused widespread health issues.
From law + suit.
Commonly used with verbs like 'file', 'bring', 'win', or 'settle'.
the police filed a lawsuitthe police filed chargesA lawsuit is a civil matter between private parties; criminal actions brought by the state are referred to as 'charges' or 'prosecutions'.