Litigious

Litigious signifies a disposition to sue; a fondness for pursuit of litigation or lawsuits. It also refers to that which is the subject of a suit or action; that which is contested in a court of justice.

In order to prevent injustice, courts of equity will restrain a party from further litigation by a writ of injunction; for example, after two verdicts on trials at bar in favor of the plaintiff, a perpetual injunction was decreed. And not only between two individuals will a court of equity grant this relief, as in the above case of several ejectments, but also when one general legal right, as a right of fishery, is claimed against several distinct persons, in which case there would be no end of bringing actions, since each action would only bind the particular right in question between the plaintiff and defendant in such action, without deciding the general right claimed.
   

This entry contains material from Bouvier's Legal Dictionary, a work published in the 1850's.