Legal Definitions - consolidate

Definition: Consolidate (verb) means to combine or unify into one mass or body. In civil procedure, it refers to combining two or more legal actions involving the same parties or issues into a single action that ends in a single judgment or sometimes separate judgments.

Example 1: The company decided to consolidate its two factories into one to save money on rent and utilities.

Example 2: The judge ordered the consolidation of two lawsuits filed against the same defendant for the same incident.

Explanation: In Example 1, the company is combining its two factories into one to save money. This illustrates the first definition of consolidate, which means to combine or unify into one mass or body. In Example 2, the judge is combining two lawsuits involving the same parties or issues into a single action that will end in a single judgment. This illustrates the second definition of consolidate, which refers to combining legal actions.