From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishfirst resortfirst resortwhat you will do first before you try other things In the past, your family was the first resort when looking for a job. → resort
Examples from the Corpus
first resort• A number of District Courts took the position on that issue that first resort should still be had to the Convention.• The family was almost certainly the first resort.• More fundamentally, many courts failed to find a basis for the first resort approach.• The role of the state was to be changed so that it would offer help in the last rather than in the first resort.• It will be seen that this falls somewhat short of the first resort approach, which the brief does not directly address.• However, your first resort in any query concerning the verification process should be your systems verifier. 