join issue

Verb

join issue (third-person singular simple present joins issue, present participle joining issue, simple past and past participle joined issue)

1. (UK, idiomatic) Of two people, to argue with one another.
2. (UK) Of two parties to a legal proceeding, to agree to argue about a particular legal claim.
   • [W]ith Rejoinders and Replies, / Long Bills, and Anſvvers, ſtuft vvith Lies, / Demurr, Imparlance, and Eſſoign, / The Parties ne'er could Iſſue join: / For Sixteen Years the Cauſe vvas ſpun, / And then ſtood vvhere it firſt begun.1726, [Jonathan Swift], Cadenus and Vanessa. A Poem, London: […] J. Roberts […], →OCLC, page 9
   • In one sense, the Court’s decision to pass over this complication may be understandable. After all, none of the parties before us questioned the application of a discovery rule in proceedings below, but joined issue only over how it should work.2021, Warner Chappell Music, Inc. v. Nealy (U.S. Supreme Court No. 19-292), Justice Gorsuch dissenting