Legal Definitions - agreed dismissal

An agreed dismissal occurs when all parties involved in a lawsuit mutually decide to end the legal action. This often happens after they have reached a settlement or come to an agreement on how to resolve their dispute outside of a court judgment. Instead of proceeding to trial, the parties file a joint request with the court to dismiss the case, effectively closing it without a judicial decision on the merits.

• Imagine a software company, "Tech Innovations Inc.," sued a client, "Global Enterprises," for unpaid invoices related to a custom software development project. Global Enterprises counter-sued, claiming the software was defective. After several months of legal arguments and discovery, both companies realized that continuing the lawsuit would be more costly than settling. Their lawyers negotiated a deal where Global Enterprises would pay a reduced amount for the software, and Tech Innovations Inc. would provide a final bug fix. As part of this agreement, both parties filed a joint motion with the court requesting an agreed dismissal of all claims and counterclaims. The court granted this request, ending the lawsuit.

  This illustrates an agreed dismissal because both Tech Innovations Inc. and Global Enterprises, the parties in the lawsuit, came to a mutual understanding (a settlement) and jointly asked the court to terminate the legal proceedings, rather than having a judge or jury decide the outcome.

• Consider a situation where Sarah was injured in a car accident caused by Mark. Sarah filed a personal injury lawsuit against Mark to recover medical expenses and lost wages. During the pre-trial phase, Mark's insurance company offered Sarah a settlement amount that she found acceptable, covering her damages. Sarah and Mark (through his insurance company) then jointly submitted a document to the court, requesting an agreed dismissal of Sarah's lawsuit. The court approved the request, closing the case because both parties had resolved the matter to their satisfaction.

  Here, the agreed dismissal occurred because Sarah, the plaintiff, and Mark (representing the defendant's interests), both consented to end the lawsuit after reaching a financial settlement. They collectively decided to conclude the legal action without further court intervention.

• Suppose a landlord, Mr. Henderson, filed an eviction lawsuit against his tenant, Ms. Chen, for unpaid rent. Ms. Chen argued that the apartment had significant maintenance issues that Mr. Henderson failed to address, making it uninhabitable. Before the trial date, both parties attended mediation. They reached an agreement where Ms. Chen would pay a portion of the back rent, and Mr. Henderson would forgive the rest, allowing Ms. Chen to move out by a specific date without an eviction on her record. Following this agreement, Mr. Henderson and Ms. Chen jointly filed a stipulation with the court for an agreed dismissal of the eviction case, which the court approved.

  This is an example of an agreed dismissal because both Mr. Henderson (the landlord) and Ms. Chen (the tenant), who were opposing parties in the lawsuit, came to a mutual resolution through mediation. They then jointly requested the court to dismiss the case, thereby ending the legal dispute by their collective consent.