Legal Definitions - equitable right

An equitable right is a type of right that can be recognized within a court of equity. If a legal right and an equitable right conflict, the legal right usually prevails over and destroys the equitable right, even if the legal right arose after the equitable right. With the merger of law and equity in federal and most state courts, the procedural differences between legal and equitable rights have been largely abolished.

For example, if a person has an equitable right to a piece of property, but then someone else obtains a legal right to that same property through a court judgment, the legal right would take precedence over the equitable right.