Legal words, terms, and concepts

Tyrus (United States of America)
For those who listen to supreme court podcasts (and aren't lawyers), here's a peppering of legal vocabulary (note: these words may have different meanings to a lawyer than they do to a common person, i.e. "estate," for the purpose of estate planning, may mean: (a) The interest which a person has in property; (b) The aggregate of property which a person owns).
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. a fortiori
    with greater reason
  2. ab initio
    at the beginning
  3. annulment
    an official or legal cancellation
  4. appellant
    relating to challenges to a legal decision
  5. appellate
    relating to challenges to a legal decision
  6. arrears
    the state of being behind in payments
  7. bilateral
    having two sides or parts
  8. capacity
    capability to perform or produce
  9. codicil
    a supplement to a will
  10. common law
    a law established by following earlier judicial decisions
  11. condonation
    a pardon by treating the offender as if the offense had not occurred
  12. corroborative
    serving to support or corroborate
  13. custody
    guardianship over
  14. de novo
    from the beginning
  15. derivative
    a compound obtained from another compound
  16. disputative
    inclined or showing an inclination to dispute or disagree, even to engage in law suits
  17. distributer
    someone who markets merchandise
  18. distributor
    a person with authority to allot or deal out or apportion
  19. doubt
    the state of being unsure of something
  20. estate
    extensive landed property retained by the owner
  21. extortion
    unjust exaction, as by the misuse of authority
  22. fiduciary
    relating to or of the nature of a legal trust
  23. franchise
    a statutory right or privilege granted by a government
  24. garnish
    decorate, as with parsley or other ornamental foods
  25. garnishment
    a court order to an employer to withhold all or part of an employee's wages and to send the money to the court or to the person who won a lawsuit against the employee
  26. grantee
    a recipient of a grant
  27. grantor
    a person who makes a grant in legal form
  28. infra
    (in writing) see below
  29. infra
    (in writing) see below
  30. intra vires
    within the legal power or authority or a person or official or body etc
  31. joint
    junction by which parts or objects are linked together
  32. lien
    the right to take and hold the property of a debtor
  33. malpractice
    professional wrongdoing that results in injury or damage
  34. maxim
    a saying that is widely accepted on its own merits
  35. noncausative
    not causative
  36. penumbra
    a region of light shadow around the darkest part of a shadow
  37. putative
    purported
  38. quasi
    having some resemblance
  39. reasonable
    showing sound judgment
  40. respondent
    replying
  41. revocation
    the act of annulling something previously done
  42. statutory
    relating to or created by regulations
  43. statutory law
    the body of laws created by legislative statutes
  44. subpoena
    a writ issued to compel the attendance of a witness
  45. supra
    at an earlier place
  46. trustee
    a person who administers property for someone else's benefit
  47. ultra
    far beyond the norm
  48. ultra vires
    beyond the legal power or authority of a person, official, body, etc.
  49. unilateral
    involving only one part or side
  50. vegetative
    of or relating to an activity that is passive and monotonous
Created on Tue Aug 18 16:17:10 EDT 2009 (updated Wed Aug 26 17:20:46 EDT 2009)

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