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Showing results for legal action. Search instead for legal jargon.
Synonyms

legal action

American  
[lee-guhl ak-shuhn] / ˈli gəl ˈæk ʃən /

noun

plural

legal actions

  1. recourse to a law court for settlement of a dispute; lawsuit.

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

And when they are, and families take legal action, the cases are typically filed in county courts, where few are ultimately heard and often settled out of court.

From MarketWatch • May 5, 2026

California officials took legal action against State Farm, alleging unlawful delays, denials, and underpayments of home-insurance claims from last year’s Los Angeles wildfires.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 4, 2026

While protections under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act limit how patient data is shared, those safeguards are not absolute when legal action is involved.

From Salon • May 2, 2026

But Northamptonshire Police repeatedly refused to hand it over, prompting her to take legal action against the county's chief constable, Ivan Balhatchet, for contempt of court.

From BBC • May 1, 2026

My first letter, Dear Mrs. O’Brien, Inasmuch as you have not seen fit to pay me what you owe me I may be forced to resort to legal action.

From "Angela's Ashes: A Memoir" by Frank McCourt

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.