Litigation is the process of taking a disagreement to court so that a judge or jury can decide the outcome. It includes all the legal steps, from filing a lawsuit to the final decision.
It comes from Latin “lītigātiō,” meaning “a dispute” or “a legal quarrel,” from “lītigāre,” to dispute or sue. English kept the formal, legal sense rather than the everyday idea of arguing.
Litigation is so slow and expensive that many cases never actually reach a dramatic courtroom trial; they settle quietly beforehand. The courtroom scenes you see in movies are the tip of a huge iceberg of paperwork and negotiation.
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