In a court of law, a party's claim is a counterclaim if one party asserts claims in response to the claims of another. In other words, if a plaintiff initiates a lawsuit and a defendant responds to the lawsuit with claims of their own against the plaintiff, the defendant’s claims are “counterclaims.” Examples of counterclaims include: * After a bank has sued a customer for an unpaid

debt Debt is an obligation that requires one party, the debtor, to pay money or other agreed-upon value to another party, the creditor. Debt is a deferred payment, or series of payments, which differentiates it from an immediate purchase. The ...

, the customer counterclaims (sues back) against the bank for fraud in procuring the debt. The court will sort out the different claims in one lawsuit (unless the claims are severed). * Two cars collide. After one person sues for damage to his/her car and personal injuries, the defendant counterclaims for similar property damage and personal injury claims.

United States

In U.S. federal courts, counterclaims can arise on various occasions, including e.g.: *an attempt by the

defendant In court proceedings, a defendant is a person or object who is the party either accused of committing a crime in criminal prosecution or against whom some type of civil relief is being sought in a civil case. Terminology varies from one jurisd ...

to offset or reduce the amount/implications of the plaintiff's claim; *a different claim by the defendant against the plaintiff; *a claim by an impleaded third-party defendant against the original defendant acting as a third-party plaintiff; *a claim by any party against another party who has made a crossclaim against them

Counterclaims v. crossclaims

Dependent upon the location of where the lawsuit was originated, the defending party has a period of time to file a countersuit, also known as a counterclaim, against the claiming party. This is a direct claim from the defending party against the party who initiated the lawsuit for concurrent claims, including being wrongfully sued. A

crossclaim A crossclaim is a claim asserted between codefendants or coplaintiffs in a case and that relates to the subject of the original claim or counterclaim according to ''Black's Law Dictionary''. A cross claim is filed against someone who is a co-d ...

is a pleading made against a party who is a co-defendant or co-plaintiff. A crossclaim is against anyone who is "on the same side of the lawsuit". An example of this is a manufacturing company who ships their product through a third-party transportation company to the buyer. Upon the products being inspected by the buyer, the buyer finds that the product has been damaged in shipping and refuses to pay. If the manufacturer sued the buyer, the buyer would serve an answer with a denial that the buyer owed money to the manufacturer and a crossclaim to the shipping company to compensate for the damages.

Compulsory v. permissive

Under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure ( FRCP), counterclaims are either compulsory or permissive. Permissive counterclaims comprise "any claim that is not compulsory." Such claims ''may'' be brought, but no rights are

waived A waiver is the voluntary relinquishment or surrender of some known right or privilege. Regulatory agencies of state departments or the federal government may issue waivers to exempt companies from certain regulations. For example, a United St ...

if they are not. Courts rarely give permissive counterclaims the necessary

supplemental jurisdiction Supplemental jurisdiction, also sometimes known as ancillary jurisdiction or pendent jurisdiction, is the authority of United States federal courts to hear additional claims substantially related to the original claim even though the court would la ...

to be brought. A claim is a compulsory counterclaim if, at the time of serving the pleading, #the counterclaim "arises out of the transaction or occurrence that is the subject matter of the opposing party's claim," #AND the counterclaim "does not require adding another party over whom the court cannot acquire jurisdiction," #AND "when the action was commenced, the therwise mandatory counterclaimwas otthe subject of another pending action,"This inverted formulation is valid, because it reverses the

grammatical polarity In linguistics and grammar, affirmation ( abbreviated ) and negation () are ways in which grammar encodes positive and negative polarity into verb phrases, clauses, or other utterances. An affirmative (positive) form is used to express the validi ...

of the clause (adding or removing the word "not") while also rendering the "exception" as a requirement. #AND ::*EITHER the opposing party sued on its claim by a process that established

personal jurisdiction Personal jurisdiction is a court's jurisdiction over the ''parties'', as determined by the facts in evidence, which bind the parties to a lawsuit, as opposed to subject-matter jurisdiction, which is jurisdiction over the ''law'' involved in the ...

over the pleader on that claim, (i.e., NOT by a process such as attachment) ::*OR (if

was not established over the pleader), the pleader asserts some other mandatory counterclaim. This last (fourth) requirement is explained in the official notes as follows: If the counterclaim is compulsory, it must be brought in the current action or it is waived and lost forever. Various tests have been proposed for when a counterclaim arises from the same transaction or occurrence, including same issues of fact and law, use of the same evidence, and logical relation between the claims.6 Wright & Miller, Federal Practice and Procedure Sec. 1410 at 42 (1971), as cited in '' Plant v. Blazer Financial Services''
598 F.2d 1357
1360 (5th Cir. 1979).

References

{{Reflist Civil law (common law)

United States

Counterclaims v. crossclaims

Compulsory v. permissive

See also

References