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2 definitions found across Law Mind sources

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Definition
A demand for something as one's due; an assertion of a right to money, property, or a legal remedy. In its broadest sense, a claim is any assertion by one party that another owes an obligation — whether grounded in contract, tort, statute, or property law. More specifically: 1. PROPERTY CLAIM: A challenge to the ownership or possession of property wrongfully withheld from the claimant. The claimant asserts title or right and demands that the property be restored or recognized. 2. LEGAL CLAIM: A cause of action — the right to bring suit and seek judicial relief. In procedural contexts, a claim is the unit of litigation: the set of facts that, if proven, entitles the claimant to a remedy. 3. DEBT OR MONETARY CLAIM: An assertion that a specific sum is owed, as in a creditor's claim filed in bankruptcy or probate proceedings.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): A demand for something believed to be owed or deserved; also, an assertion of truth ("he claimed innocence"). Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): "A demand of a right or supposed right; a calling on another for something due or supposed to be due." The gap between common and legal meaning is narrower here than with many legal terms, but meaningful in one respect: in ordinary speech, a "claim" may be nothing more than an assertion of fact. In law, a claim carries structural weight — it must be grounded in a cognizable legal theory and supported by facts sufficient to state a cause of action. An unsupported assertion is not a legal claim; it is merely an allegation.
Common Confusion
CLAIM vs. CAUSE OF ACTION: These terms are often used interchangeably, and in modern federal pleading practice (notice pleading) the distinction has blurred. Technically, a cause of action is the legal theory that entitles a party to relief; a claim is the assertion of that theory applied to specific facts. Some courts treat them as synonymous. Researchers working in older materials should be alert to jurisdictions and eras where "cause of action" was the operative term in pleading requirements. CLAIM vs. RIGHT: A claim is an asserted right — it may or may not be legally cognizable. A right, once established, is recognized and enforceable. The distinction matters in constitutional contexts, where the existence of a legal claim may itself be what is contested.
Why It Matters in Research
The word "claim" is one of the most context-dependent terms in legal research. Its meaning shifts substantially depending on the procedural posture and subject matter area: In BANKRUPTCY, "claim" has a statutory definition under the Bankruptcy Code with specific consequences for filing deadlines and discharge. Historical sources predating the modern Bankruptcy Code use the term differently. In PATENT LAW, "claims" are the numbered paragraphs at the end of a patent that define the scope of the invention. This is a highly technical, specialized meaning entirely distinct from litigation usage. In PLEADING, the shift from common law forms of action to code pleading to notice pleading changed what a "claim" must allege to survive. Researchers reading pre-code materials (pre-1848 in most states) should understand that the concept of a unified "claim" barely existed — parties pled specific forms of action, not generalized claims. In PROPERTY, the historical usage in Black's 2nd Ed. — "a challenge of the property or ownership of a thing wrongfully withheld" — reflects the older tradition of real actions and formal claim procedures that have largely been replaced by modern possessory and quiet title actions. Researchers should also note that "claim" appears in constitutional text (the Full Faith and Credit Clause, the Takings Clause, and others) where courts have developed specific doctrinal meanings that do not track the general common law usage.
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed.) leads with the property-centered definition: "A challenge of the property or ownership of a thing which is wrongfully withheld from the possession of the claimant." This reflects the primacy of property disputes in late 19th-century legal practice. The emphasis on wrongful withholding situates the term in the tradition of real property recovery and replevin. What the historical entry does not fully capture is the procedural dimension that would come to dominate 20th-century usage — the idea of a claim as the basic unit of litigation in a system governed by rules of civil procedure rather than forms of action. Researchers relying solely on Black's 2nd Ed. for the meaning of "claim" in a post-1938 federal context (after the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure took effect) will find the definition incomplete.
Jurisdictional Note
Federal courts under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure use "claim" as the foundational unit of pleading. State courts vary; some retain "cause of action" as the operative term. In patent and bankruptcy matters, federal statutory definitions control and should be consulted directly rather than relying on general dictionary definitions.
Related Terms
Cause of Action — Allegation — Right — Demand — Pleading — Proof of Claim (bankruptcy) — Patent Claim — Claimant — Accrual of Claim — Counterclaim — Cross-Claim
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Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed.) • 1910
CLAIM, ». 1. A challenge of the property or ownership of a thing which is wrongfully withheld from the possession of the claimant. Stowel v. Zouch, Plowd. 359; Robinson v. Wiley, 15 N. Y. 491; Fordyce v. Godman, 20 Ohio St. 14; Douglas v. Beasley, 40 Ala. 147: Prigg v. Pennsylvania, 16 Pet. 615, 10 I. Ed. 1060; U. S. v. Rhodes (C. C.) 30 Fed. 433; Silliman v. Eddy, 8 How. Prac. (N. Y.) 123. A claim is a right or title, actual or supposed, to a debt, privilege, or other thing in the possession of another; not the possession, but the means by or through which the claimant obtains the possession or enjoyment. Lawrence v. Miller, 2 N. Y. 245, 254. A claim is, in a just, juridical sense, a demand of some matter as of right made by one person upon another, to do or to forbear to do some act or thing as a matter of duty. A more limited, but at the same time an equally expressive, definition was given by Lord Dyer, that “a claim is a challenge by a man of the propriety or ewneranlp of a thing, which he has not in u ssion, t which is wrongfully detained m him.” Prigg v. Pennsylvania, 16 Pet. 615, 10 L. Ed. 1060. “Claim” has generally been defined as a demand for a thing, the ownership of which, or an interest in which, is in the claimant, but the ion of which is wrongfully withheld by another. But a broader meaning must be accorded to it. A demand for damages for criminal conversation with plaintiff's wife is a claim; but it would be doing violence to language to say that such damages are property of plaintiff which defendant withholds. In common parlance the noun “claim” means an assertion, a pretension; and the verb is often used (not qui e correctly) as a synonym for ‘‘state,” “urge,” “insist,” or “assert.” In a statute authorizing the courts to order a bill of particulars of the “claim” of either party, “claim” is co-extensive with “case,” and embraces all causes of action and all grounds of defense, the pleas of both parties, and pleas in confession and avoidance, no less than complaints and counter-claims. It warrants the court in requiring a defendant who justifies in a libel suit to furnish particulars of the facts relied upon Yan Orvis v. Jennings, 6 Daly (N. 2. Under the mechanic’s lien law of Pennsylvania, a demand put on record by a mechanic or material-man against a building for work or material contributed to its erection is called a “claim.” 3. Under the land laws of the United States, the tract of land taken up by a pre emptioner or other settler (and also his possession of the same) is called a “claim.” Railroad Co. y. Abink, 14 Neb. 95, 15 N. W. 317; Bowman v. Torr, 8 Iowa, 673. 4. In patent law, the claim is the spectfication by the applicant for a patent of the particular things in which he insists his invention is novel and patentable; it is the clause in the application in which the applicant defines precisely what his invention is. White v. Dunbar, 119 U. S. 47, 7 Sup. Ct. 72, 30 L. Ed. 308; Brammer v. Schroeder, 106 Fed. 930, 46 C. O. A. 41. —Adverse claim. <A claim set up by a stranger to goods upon which the sheriff has levied an execution or attachment.—Claim and de-

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