Substitution of parties is a replacement of one of the parties in a lawsuit because of events that prevent the party from continuing with the trial. This can be due to a number of reasons including death, incompetence or transfer of interest of the party, and in case of a public official, when the official is replaced or removed from his official capacity. Rule 25 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure provides the procedure for a motion for “substitution of parties” in civil proceedings in U.S. federal courts.
Cases such as this one from California, explain that “the purpose of ‘substitution of parties’ to an action on death or transfer of an interest is that there may be some individual or entity to represent the transferred interest during continuation of the litigation.”
[Last updated in September of 2021 by the Wex Definitions Team]