Standing Law and Legal Definition
Standing is the ability of a party to bring a lawsuit in court based upon their stake in the outcome. A party seeking to demonstrate standing must be able to show the court sufficient connection to and harm from the law or action challenged. Otherwise, the court will rule that you "lack standing" to bring the suit and dismiss your case.
There are three constitutional requirements to prove standing:
- Injury: The plaintiff must have suffered or imminently will suffer injury. The injury must not be abstract and must be within the zone of interests meant to be regulated or protected under the statutory or constitutional guarantee in question.
- Causation: The injury must be reasonably connected to the defendant?s conduct.
- Redressability: A favorable court decision must be likely to redress the injury.
There are other requirements imposed by judge made law:
- A party may only assert his or her own rights and cannot raise the claims of a third party who is not before the court.
- A plaintiff cannot sue as a taxpayer who shares a grievance in common with all other taxpayers.
