Legal recourse

A legal recourse is an action that can be taken by an individual or a corporation to attempt to remedy a legal difficulty.

• A lawsuit if the issue is a matter of civil law
• Many contracts require mediation or arbitration before a dispute can go to court
• Referral to police or prosecutor for investigation and possible criminal charges if the matter is a criminal violation
• Petition to a legislature or other law-making body for a change in the law if a law is thought to be unjust.
• Petition to a president or governor or monarch other chief executive or other official with power to pardon.

See also: Legal remedy

See also

Legal principles

• Habeas corpus
• Damnum absque injuria, loss without injury
• Arm's length principle

Examples

• Arranged marriages may leave the woman without legal recourse.
• Bookies and confidence tricksters rely on the mark being involved in illegal activity to block legal recourse.
• Victims of bullying may have legal recourse in the United States.
• The Class Action Fairness Act of 2005 purportedly leaves consumer groups without legal recourse.
• Diploma mills and essay mills employ various legal techniques to leave their customers without legal recourse.
• In termination of employment, an employee may have legal recourse to challenge such a termination in at-will presumption of employment in the United States.
• Victims of joke theft have little legal recourse, but have occasionally exacted their own vengeance.
• Lynchings
• Military tribunal
• Rumsfeld v. Padilla