Maintenance and champerty were two related offenses at English common law concerning improper involvement in someone else's lawsuit. Maintenance is the intermeddling of a disinterested party to encourage or support a lawsuit in which they have no legitimate interest, while champerty is a form of maintenance in which a party financially supports a plaintiff not naturally concerned in the suit on condition of receiving a share of the proceeds if the suit succeeds. Common law recognized barratry, the bringing of vexatious litigation, as a third and related offense, but historically treated maintenance and champerty as separate wrongs concerned specifically with a third party's funding or encouragement of someone else's litigation rather than with a party bringing vexatious suits on their own behalf.
Facts
Jurisdiction VariationIn the United States, some states still recognize champerty and maintenance as offenses, but most states have replaced them with the civil actions of abuse of process and malicious prosecution. 1 Classification
Offense GradeMinor or Summary Offense 1 Connections
Has Offense Grade
Entity-backed identity for the offense-grade enum value this offense already carries, resolved to a crime concept by an explicit value-to-entity map (phase 3 bucket conversion, docs\design_entity_backed_browse_buckets_20260928.md). The offense-grade fact itself stays on the offense unchanged.
In the Other Atlases
Sources
1. Champerty and Maintenance: Common Law Doctrines Explained (LegalClarity)
Page body, modern status sectionQuote, Page body, modern status section
Today, some states still recognize champerty and maintenance as offenses but in most states they have been replaced with the civil actions of abuse of process and malicious prosecution, both of which deal with the wrongful initiation of litigation and perversion of legal process.
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