Reply #4: Several Reasons [View All]

[happyslug]

First, both sides may have filed naming each other as Defendant and the Court decided to combine the two under one caption and it is the opposite of the most commonly reported caption (This is the most common situation).

Second, an appeal was taken and the caption is Appelee vs Appellant, Not Plaintiff vs Defendant AND Defendant is the Appelee (This happens a lot in cases going to the US Supreme Court).

Third a misprint.

Fourth, a local rule of the Court to name certain parties first (For Example "State vs X" even when the State is the Defendant.

Fifth, the Parties were the First on a list of Parties and for some reason later removed (Mostly happens in Class Action Cases). For Example the original Caption may be X et al vs Y et al, than later on when it is found out that X and Y are (or are no longer) part of the Class, their name is removed and replaced by another member of the Class (The "et al" Group). Theoretically you may even have a situation where a new person named "Y" become the Plaintiff and a new Defendant named "X" become a Defendant (Rare but happens).

Sixth, when the Defendants and Plaintiffs are part of a group of Plaintiff and Defendants and as the litigation goes on the groups stay basically the same but the lead parties switch (Happens most often in Family dispute cases, Father and Children XYZ vs Mother and Children ABC, than Father and Mother Changes sides so it is MOTHER and Children XYZ vs. Father and Children ABC.

The Courts use captions to keep cases separate from each other and will make what changes needed to keep cases from becoming confusing. Generally the Court like to stay with one set of Captions for this reason, but at times such a rigid rule provides its own problems. Thus some flexibility is permitted.