Anchor defendant
In law, an anchor defendant is a person who is made a defendant to a claim for the primary purpose of vesting jurisdiction to hear the claim in a certain court. Usually the purpose of the anchor defendant is to allow claims to be brought in a certain court against another defendant (not the anchor defendant) over whom the relevant court would not otherwise have jurisdiction. Accordingly, use of anchor defendants is often a variation of forum shopping. The reference to an anchor is metaphorical; "anchoring" the proceedings to the relevant jurisdiction where they might otherwise naturally drift to another court. Basis The use of anchor defendants as a litigation strategy relies upon two basic principles common to most legal systems. The first is that where a cause of action involves claims against multiple parties, it is convenient for all of those claims to be tried together to avoid the risk of inconsistent results. The second is that courts in different jurisdictions should seek to avoid holding concurrent trials relating to the same claims (this is usually referred to as the doctrine of lis alibi pendens), both the avoid the risk of inconsistent results and to avoid defendants having to