Proceedings in prohibition shall be by a civil action in which the person seeking relief is relator and the person against whom such relief is sought is respondent. If appropriate, there may be multiple relators or multiple respondents.
Rule 97.02.Form of Action--Parties.
Part III · Rule 97: Prohibition · Last amended January 1, 1983 · Last verified July 22, 2026
In one sentenceRule 97.02 requires a prohibition case to proceed as a civil action, names the party seeking the writ the relator and the party facing it the respondent, and allows for multiple relators or multiple respondents when the case involves more than one person on either side.
Full Text of Rule 97.02
Amendment History
Adopted June 5, 1980, eff. Jan. 1, 1981; Amended Sept. 10, 1982, eff. Jan. 1, 1983.
Official Comment
This is substantially the same as prior Rule 97.01.
Plain-English Summary
Prohibition sounds exotic, but Rule 97.02 grounds it in familiar territory: the case is a civil action, filed and litigated the way any other civil case is. What changes are the labels. Instead of a plaintiff and a defendant, a prohibition case has a relator, the person asking the court to stop the lower tribunal, and a respondent, typically the judge or tribunal whose action is being challenged.
The terminology traces back to the writ's origins as a command issued by a higher court on behalf of the state, at the relation, or request, of the person harmed. Calling the moving party a relator instead of a plaintiff signals that the case is not just a private dispute between two people; it is the state's own machinery being invoked to keep a tribunal within its lawful bounds.
Rule 97.02 also anticipates that prohibition cases are not always a clean one-on-one dispute. Several people may have a stake in stopping the same lower court action, or a case may need to name more than one respondent, such as a judge along with another party below. The rule accommodates that reality by permitting multiple relators or multiple respondents in a single proceeding.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is the relator in a prohibition case?
The relator is the person seeking the writ, the party asking the court to stop the lower tribunal from exceeding its authority.
Who is the respondent?
The respondent is the person against whom the relief is sought, most often the judge or tribunal whose action the relator wants stopped.
Can there be more than one relator or respondent in the same case?
Yes. Rule 97.02 expressly allows multiple relators or multiple respondents when the case calls for it.
How is a prohibition case different from an ordinary lawsuit in terms of structure?
Structurally it is not different at all; it is a civil action. What differs is the vocabulary used for the parties and the extraordinary nature of the remedy being sought.
Why does the rule use relator and respondent instead of plaintiff and defendant?
Those terms reflect prohibition's long history as a writ brought in the name of the state at the request of the person harmed, distinguishing it from an ordinary private civil claim.
Does naming a judge as respondent mean the judge is personally at fault?
No. The respondent label identifies who must answer the petition; it does not itself imply personal wrongdoing by the judge or tribunal named.
Source & verification. Rule text and amendment history are
reproduced verbatim from the Missouri State & Federal Court Rules, adopted by the
Supreme Court of Missouri. Last verified July 22, 2026. ·
Official source
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