friendly suit

plural friendly suits

1. lawThe situation where a person sues another person (friend) purely to settle a point of (unsettled) law.

   Federal courts cannot adjudicate a friendly suit, collusively arranged between non-adverse parties to obtain the judicial resolution of some constitutional issue.

   2007, Norman Redlich, John B. Attanasio, Joel K. Goldstein, Understanding Constitutional Law, →ISBN

   1 more example

   The summer after my freshman year in college, four years after the death of Miss Agnes, my father's bank filed a friendly suit against him to receive the court's interpretation of Miss Agnes's will.

   2015, Kate Mayfield, The Undertaker's Daughter, →ISBN, page 293