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 Rhode Island, 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 and instead focus on the interpretation and application of the law. When utilizing this procedure, the parties prepare a narrative statement of the agreed facts and submit this along with their legal arguments to the court. The court then makes a ruling based on the stipulated facts and the relevant law. If an appeal is necessary, the agreed statement of facts is sent to the appellate court, which could be the Rhode Island Supreme Court, as there is no intermediate court of appeals in Rhode Island. This agreed statement takes the place of the trial court record, which would typically include a transcript of the trial proceedings and the evidence presented.