next friend

American  

noun

Law.

1. a person other than a duly appointed guardian who acts on behalf of an infant or other person not fully qualified by law to act on their own behalf.

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next friend British  

noun

1. Official name: litigation friend.  law (formerly) a person acting on behalf of an infant or other person under legal disability

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Etymology

Origin of next friend

before 900; Middle English; Old English

Example Sentences

Why not invite your next friend who reaches out to walk along Alki or Seward Park instead?

From Seattle Times • Jan. 31, 2017

In a rise which thus has more of Dale Carnegie than Horatio Alger in it, the next friend whom Ed Stettinius won and influenced was U.S.

From Time Magazine Archive

Technically hired as counsel by Edelman who claimed legal status as "next friend" of the Rosenbergs, the two lawyers developed a special argument.

From Time Magazine Archive

Over-harshness is in some ways worse than over-easiness, because it makes less pleasant the relation between nurse and patient, and the latter should regard the former as her "next friend."

From Fat and Blood An Essay on the Treatment of Certain Forms of Neurasthenia and Hysteria by Mitchell, John K.

My next friend to testify is Pat Ruddy, eighty years old, one of the most intelligent and prosperous farmers living beside Ben Bulbin.

From The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries by Wentz, W. Y. Evans