In civil proceedings, a party can be a natural or legal person, but certain state bodies can also appear in extraordinary situations. The court is obliged to recognize certain state bodies as a party in a specific case. The party that initiates civil proceedings is called the plaintiff, and the defendant is the person against whom the claim is directed. The parties must have party capacity, litigation capacity and must be procedurally legitimized in order to be able to participate in the procedure. Party capacity is the ability of a subject to be the holder of procedural rights and duties, and litigation capacity is the ability of a certain person to undertake procedural actions in litigation. Procedural legitimation is the ability of a specific person to initiate civil proceedings against another specific person. If a party does not have any of these abilities, it cannot be a party to the proceedings, and in such cases it needs a representative. A representative is a person who appears before the court instead of a party and undertakes procedural actions on his behalf and for his account in the proceedings.