Legal laws and rules are made to ensure justice to the victim and to ensure proper punishment to the culprit. Courts are places where people come to seek legal help and to get back their rights. Plaintiff and defendant are two very common terms used in the court to indicate parties in the process of fighting a case.
People who never visited the court or have less idea about the legal terms used n the courts must seek knowledge to know the basic differences between these commonly used terms. In simple words, if you are the first person who appears first in the police station to seek legal help or file a case, you would be known as a plaintiff. And the other party who get involved in the case because someone wants them to be sued are known as defendants.
Except for this basic difference, there are so many things that can explain better the differences between plaintiff and defendant. People who are completely unknown about this topic must read our writing to enlighten themselves about these legal terms. Let’s have an insightful look at it.
Table of Contents
To Whom We Can Address as a Plaintiff?
Before addressing someone as a plaintiff, you must have a clear idea about the meaning of this term. People who keep themselves away from the field of laws and judiciary sectors hold less idea about these legal terms. But when it’s you fighting or representing your case in the court, you must know about which name or word you are being addressed in that platform.
First of all, to process a case in court, someone has to file the lawsuit or the case in court. If you are someone who has reached the court first to seek legal help or to ensure justice, you will be called a plaintiff in that particular case. You can also consider it as a legal name reserved for you. It can be a single person or a group of people also.
You must remember the thing that whether you are a plaintiff or a defendant, it never determines the fact you are a victim or a culprit. If you are a victim, you must prove your innocence in court with proper evidence with the help of a lawyer.
What are the Dos and Don’ts of a Plaintiff?
As we already have cleared the fact that the outcome or the final result of the case has nothing to do with the fact of who is the plaintiff and who is the defendant. Still, there are some rules that you have to fulfill if you are a plaintiff in the case.
The Dos of a Plaintiff
The plaintiff mainly introduces himself in the court by bringing the issue in the court or by filing the case. In this situation, he gets a good chance to represent his claims and allegations on the other party properly in the case. As he reaches the legal field first, all of his statements get filed carefully.
As a plaintiff is a person to make the claims first, he gets burdened with the collection of evidence to prove his claims property in front of the judge. He has to prove at least half of his claims to save the validity of the case that he made in the first place. If he fails to show enough evidence to prove his claims in the court, it will bring a huge negative impact on his case, and this may turn into a plus point for the defendants.
When you are a plaintiff in your case, you must not expect that you will be the only one to make claims. The other parties also have the right to make claims. In that situation, you have to defend yourself from those claims to prove your innocence.
Which Party Can We Call the Defendant?
If you are not the first person who reached the court to file a case or someone else has filed a case against you, in this situation, you may consider yourself as a defendant. Suppose, in one fine morning, you are drinking tea at your home with your family, and suddenly you get a phone call as legal notice that someone has filed a case against you. in this case, you will have to play the role of a defendant.
For better understanding, you can imagine a situation where a road accident has occurred. Nobody knows who is at fault or who is responsible for the accident. Immediately after the accident, the driver goes to the police station and files a case against the pedestrian. In this case, the driver will be considered as a plaintiff, and the pedestrian will be considered as the defendant.
Dos of a Defendant
The term “defendant” itself says a lot about what it means. You have to defend yourself free from all the claims made by the other party. In that case, it’s your first duty is to hire an excellent skilled lawyer who can defend your side meticulously.
As a defendant, you may face many false or illogical claims that have never truly happened in real. As a simple human being, this may affect your mental health badly, but you must keep the patience to keep yourself mentally strong to fight against all of those illogical false claims. Patience is the most important thing you must maintain at that time.
As the dos of the defendants and the plaintiffs, there are also some don’ts for both of the parties. As with the dos, the don’t are also important, and both of the parties must keep balance to prove their innocence in the court.
After this huge discussion, if you still feel you cannot differentiate between who is the plaintiff and who is the defendant, a short trick can help you figure it out. When you check the case file, you will see a name in the first portion and another name in the second portion. The first name covering the first portion is the plaintiff and the second name covering the second portion represents the defendant.
Final Words
If you are fighting your case on a legal platform such as in court, it never matters to prove your innocence whether you are a plaintiff or a defendant. The court always functions depending on the evidence represented in front of the judge. A plaintiff can also be punished if he or she is proved as the culprit and this same thing also goes for a defendant.
