An agreed case is a procedure that can be used in rare situations in which the parties to a lawsuit agree on the facts and disagree on the relevant law as applied to the facts. In such a case the parties stipulate to the facts, file a narrative statement of the agreed facts, and submit the case to the court for a ruling.
If a case submitted on an agreed statement of facts is appealed, the narrative statement of facts stipulated to by the parties is filed with the appellate court (often the court of appeals) rather than the trial court record (a transcript of the trial that includes witness testimony and documents admitted in evidence).
In Maine, an agreed case, also known as a case stated or stipulated facts case, is a legal procedure where the parties involved in a lawsuit concur on the factual aspects of the case but seek a judicial determination on the legal questions presented by those facts. This process allows the parties to bypass the need for a trial to establish the facts and instead submit a narrative statement of the agreed facts directly to the court. The court's role is then to apply the law to these facts and make a ruling. If either party decides to appeal the decision, the agreed statement of facts is presented to the appellate court, which could be the Maine Supreme Judicial Court acting as the Law Court, instead of the typical trial court record. This method is particularly useful in situations where the dispute is centered on a point of law rather than on the evidence or facts of the case.