Guardian Ad Litem
by The real object of having a next friend is that there may be somebody to whom the defendant or the opposite party may be able to look for costs.
Guardian‑ad‑litem
By
S J Tubrazy
The expression a next friend’ originally denoted the person through whom an infant acts without any necessary reference to litigation but in modern times it has come to assume a technical meaning of the person by whom a minor or an infant, as the case may be, is represented as a plaintiff in litigation. The real object of having a next friend is that there may be somebody to whom the defendant or the opposite party may be able to look for costs. The next friend himself does not actually become a party to the litigation. It is the minor who is the party and the next friend is a person, so to speak in the back ground, who can act on the minor’s behalf and to whom the opposite party can look for costs. Now there is one other peculiarity to notice in the position of a next friend. As everyone knows, a minor who is a defendant to a suit is represented by a guardian‑ad‑litem. There is this difference between a guardian‑ad-litem and a next friend that, whereas a guardian‑ad‑litem is constituted by an order of the Court, a next friend automatically constitutes himself, by taking steps in the suit.
(The writer is banking lawyer in Pakistan)
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