Also known as: loci standi · standing · legal standing · standing to sue
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
The right of a party to initiate or maintain an action or to be heard in a particular court or other tribunal.
Leah Lamb was charged with assault after attacking a neighbor during an episode of severe mental illness. Her attorney sought to introduce evidence that she could not control her actions due to the illness. The court ruled that Leah lacked locus standi to raise a control-based defense because the jurisdiction followed the traditional M'Naghten test, which focuses solely on cognitive capacity at the time of the act.
Leonard Lowe hired a local plumber to fix a leaking pipe in his rental unit. The plumber performed the work below the standard expected of licensed professionals in the area. Leonard sued the plumber for resulting water damage. The court recognized Leonard's locus standi because the plumber had undertaken professional services and therefore owed the duty of care normally exercised by members of that trade.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Lucas Lee granted a security interest in manufacturing equipment to secure a loan. After default the secured party sought to enforce its interest against the equipment. The court confirmed the secured party's locus standi because the equipment qualified as goods that were movable when the security interest attached.
Liam Larson confronted an intruder who threatened serious injury with a weapon. Liam used force that caused permanent loss of function in the intruder's arm. The court recognized Liam's locus standi to assert the privilege because the harm he reasonably feared qualified as serious bodily harm under the applicable standard.
Levi Lowe, a farmer, granted a security interest in his growing corn crop. After default the lender claimed the crop as collateral. The court upheld the lender's locus standi because the corn constituted farm products with respect to which the debtor was engaged in a farming operation.
A special prosecutor sought production of presidential recordings for use in a pending criminal prosecution. The President asserted executive privilege. The court recognized the prosecutor's locus standi to litigate the privilege claim because the regulation granting the prosecutor authority remained in effect and bound the executive branch.
A party must demonstrate a sufficient interest in the outcome that the law recognizes as entitling the party to invoke the court's authority. The interest must be concrete and particularized rather than abstract or generalized.
Supporting sources
A person present solely for a brief commercial transaction without an overnight stay or prior relationship with the host generally lacks a reasonable expectation of privacy and therefore has no locus standi to contest a search.
Persons dissociated as partners have no locus standi to bring a derivative action on behalf of the partnership.
The individual must file a verified pleading alleging specific facts supporting the claim and must satisfy the statutory requirements by a preponderance of the evidence before the court will recognize locus standi to maintain the parentage proceeding.
A personal representative of a decedent domiciled in the state at death possesses the same locus standi to sue and be sued as the decedent held immediately prior to death.
…District Court for the Northern District of Texas, to which the action was referred, held that the Does and Hallford had no standing to sue, but that Roe did have standing, and that the Texas abortion laws were unconstitutional. The court declared the laws void but refused to issue an injunction against their enforcement.…