In U.S. federal courts, counterclaims can arise on various occasions, including e.g.: • an attempt by the
defendant to offset or reduce the amount/implications of the plaintiff's claim; • a different claim by the defendant against the plaintiff; • a claim by an
impleaded third-party defendant against the original defendant acting as a third-party plaintiff; • a claim by any party against another party who has made a crossclaim against them
Counterclaims v. crossclaims Dependent upon the location of where the lawsuit was originated, the defending party has a period of time to file a
countersuit, also known as a counterclaim, against the claiming party. This is a direct claim from the defending party against the party who initiated the lawsuit for concurrent claims, including being wrongfully sued. A
crossclaim is a pleading made against a party who is a co-defendant or co-plaintiff. A crossclaim is against anyone who is "on the same side of the lawsuit". An example of this is a manufacturing company who ships their product through a third-party transportation company to the buyer. Upon the products being inspected by the buyer, the buyer finds that the product has been damaged in shipping and refuses to pay. If the manufacturer sued the buyer, the buyer would serve an answer with a denial that the buyer owed money to the manufacturer and a crossclaim to the shipping company to compensate for the damages.
Compulsory v. permissive Under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (
FRCP), counterclaims are either compulsory or permissive.
Permissive counterclaims comprise "any claim that is not compulsory." Such claims
may be brought, but no rights are
waived if they are not. Courts rarely give permissive counterclaims the necessary
supplemental jurisdiction to be brought. A claim is a
compulsory counterclaim if, at the time of serving the pleading, • the counterclaim "arises out of the transaction or occurrence that is the subject matter of the opposing party's claim," • AND the counterclaim "does not require adding another party over whom the court cannot acquire jurisdiction," • AND "when the action was commenced, the [otherwise mandatory counterclaim] was [not] the subject of another pending action," • AND ::*EITHER the opposing party sued on its claim by a process that established
personal jurisdiction over the pleader on that claim, == England and Wales ==