joinder of suit

In law, joinder of suit refers to the process of combining two or more legal issues into a single hearing for efficiency. This can involve joinder of claims, where a party asserts multiple claims based on different legal grounds, or joinder of parties, where additional plaintiffs or defendants are brought into an existing lawsuit.1

Impleader is a related process where a defendant brings a third party into a suit, believing that this third party may be liable for some or all of the plaintiff's claim. Courts generally favor joinder to save time and costs. In some cases, joinder is mandatory, requiring all necessary parties to participate for a just adjudication of the matter.1