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 New Mexico, an agreed case, also known as a case submitted on an agreed statement of facts, is a legal procedure where the disputing parties concur on the factual aspects of the case but seek a judicial determination on the legal questions involved. This process allows the parties to bypass the need for a trial to establish the facts, thereby focusing solely on the legal issues at hand. The parties prepare a narrative statement detailing the facts they have agreed upon and submit this to the court. The court then makes a ruling based on the legal implications of these stipulated facts. Should the case be appealed, the agreed statement of facts is presented to the appellate court, such as the New Mexico Court of Appeals, instead of the trial court record. This procedure is typically used in rare circumstances where the material facts are not in dispute, and the primary contention lies in the interpretation or application of the law.