To sue means to take someone to court to try to get money or force them to do something after they've wronged you. When someone sues, they're asking a judge to settle a disagreement they couldn't solve on their own.

People sue for many reasons. If a driver runs a red light and crashes into your family's car, your parents might sue to get money to pay for repairs and medical bills. If a company breaks a contract by not delivering what they promised, the other company might sue. If someone writes lies about you in a newspaper that damage your reputation, you could sue for defamation.

Suing is serious and usually expensive, so people try to solve problems other ways first. But sometimes the court system is the only way to get justice or compensation when someone has genuinely harmed you. The person who sues is called the plaintiff, and the person being sued is the defendant.

You might hear people joke about suing over silly things, like threatening to sue when a friend takes the last cookie. But real lawsuits involve lawyers, evidence, and judges making decisions based on the law. A lawsuit is the formal name for the legal case itself.