In Charles Dickens' 'Bleak House', what is the name of the interminable court case?

In Charles Dickens’s Bleak House, the interminable court case is called Jarndyce and Jarndyce.

The fictional case is heard in the Court of Chancery and concerns a large inheritance complicated by multiple wills, trusts, and competing beneficiaries. By the time the novel begins, the litigation has continued for generations, with lawyers and claimants trapped in a process that seems incapable of reaching a meaningful conclusion.

Dickens uses Jarndyce and Jarndyce as the novel’s central symbol of legal delay, bureaucracy, and institutional self-interest. When the inheritance is finally resolved, legal costs have consumed the entire estate, making the judgment effectively worthless. The case’s title is also commonly written as Jarndyce v Jarndyce; Dickens’s “and” reflects how the abbreviation “v.” is traditionally pronounced in English civil cases.

The satire drew on real Chancery disputes, including the long-running Jennens v Jennens litigation. The case’s name has since become a shorthand for lawsuits that drag on so long that the process defeats its original purpose.