LITIGATION

litigation,n.1. The process of carrying on a lawsuit <the attorney advised his client to make a generous settlement offer in order to avoid litigation>.2. A lawsuit itself <several litigations pending before the court>. — litigate,vb. — litigatory, litigational,adj.

complex litigation.Litigation involving several parties who are separately represented, and

usu. involving multifarious factual and legal issues.

“What exactly is ‘complex litigation’? The problem is that no one really knows — or, more accurately perhaps, various definitions don’t agree. Complex civil litigation has an ‘I-know-it-when-I-see-it’ quality. Nearly everyone agrees that matters like the massive asbestos litigation, the AT&T antitrust suit, or the remedial phase of a school desegregation case are complex. But trying to find a common thread that both describes these cases and distinguishes them from the run-of-the-mill car crash is difficult.” Jay Tidmarsh & Roger H. Transgrud, Complex Litigation 1 (2002).
[Blacks Law 8th]