We created this glossary of legal terms to provide you with explanations of the many legal terms used in this website and throughout our practice.  If you find a term that needs further clarification, please feel free to contact us. We’ll be happy to help.

A-F

Action

A civil or criminal judicial proceeding.

Affidavit

A voluntary declaration of facts written down and sworn to by the declarant before an officer authorized to administer oaths.

Appeal

A proceeding undertaken to have a decision reconsidered by bringing it to a higher authority.

Appellate Court

A court with jurisdiction to review decisions of lower courts or administrative agencies.

Arbitration

A method of dispute resolution involving one or more neutral third parties who are agreed to by the disputing parties and whose decision is binding.

Attorney

One who is designated to transact business for another; a legal agent.

Auditory Neuropathy

A variety of hearing loss in which the outer hair cells within the cochlea are present and functional, but sound information is not faithfully transmitted to the auditory nerve and brain properly.

Bench Trial or Non-jury Trial

A trial before a judge without a jury.

Beneficiary

A person who is designated to benefit from an appointment, disposition, or assignment (as in a will, insurance policy, etc.).

Bilirubin

Bilirubin is a molecule in the blood. It is produced when the liver breaks down old red blood cells.  An excess of bilirubin can cause brain damage in a newborn.

Bills of Sale

An instrument for the conveyance of title to personal property, absolutely or by way of security.

Birth Injury

A physical injury sustained by an infant during labor and delivery.

Brain Injury

(See Traumatic Brain Injury)

Breach

A violation or infraction of a law or obligation.

Brief

A written statement setting out the legal contentions of a party in litigation.

Burden of Proof

A party’s duty to prove a disputed assertion or charge.

Business Purchase Agreements

A sales/purchase contract.

Civil Law

The body of law imposed by the state, as opposed to moral law.

Claim

A demand for money or property to which one asserts a right (an insurance claim).

Collections

The process through which an item (such as a check) passes in a payor bank.

Commercial Law

The substantive law dealing with the sale and distribution of goods, the financing or credit transactions on the security of the goods sold, and negotiable instruments.

Commercial Litigation

The process of carrying on a lawsuit concerning business assets and claims.

Commercial Real Estate

Any real property owned to produce income.

Compensation

Payment of damages, or any other act that a court orders to be done by a person who has caused injury to another and must therefore make the other whole.

Construction Liens

A statutory lien that secures payment for labor or materials supplied in improving, repairing, or maintaining real or personal property.

Contingency Fee

A fee charged for a lawyer’s services only if the lawsuit is successful or is favorably settled out of court.

Contract

An agreement between two or more parties creating obligations that are enforceable or otherwise recognizable at law.

Copyright

The exclusive legal right to reproduce, publish, sell or distribute the matter and form of something (as a literary, musical or artistic work).

Corporations

An entity (usually a business) having authority under law to act as a single person distinct from the shareholders who own it and having rights to issue stock and exist indefinitely.

Counsel

One or more lawyers who represent a client.

Cross Examination

The questioning of a witness under oath by an adverse party.

Damages

Money claimed by, or ordered to be paid to, a person as compensation for loss or injury.

Defendant

A person sued in a civil proceeding or accused in a criminal proceeding.

Deposition

A witness’s out of court sworn testimony that is reduced to writing (usually by a court reporter) for later use in court or for discovery purposes.

Disability

The condition of being unable to perform as a consequence of physical or mental unfitness.

Discovery

The stage in a court case whereby each party may discover tangible items, documents, facts, knowledge and opinions in possession of the other.

Docket

A formal record in which a judge or court clerk briefly notes all the proceedings and filings in a court case.

Eighteen (18) Wheeler

A large tractor-trailer, usually having ten wheels on the cab and eight on the trailer.

Emotional Distress

A highly unpleasant mental reaction (such as anguish, grief, fright, humiliation or fury) that results from another person’s conduct.

Escrow

Money held by a third-party on behalf of transacting parties.

Evidence

Something (including testimony, documents and tangible objects) that tends to prove or disprove the existence of an alleged fact.

Expert Witness

A witness qualified by knowledge, skill, experience, training, or education to provide a scientific, technical, or other specialized opinion about the evidence or a fact issue.

Federal Courts

A court having federal jurisdiction, including the US Supreme Court, courts of appeals, district courts, bankruptcy courts and tax courts.

Filing (File)

To deliver a legal document to the court clerk or record custodian for placement into the official record.

Flatbed Trailer

A truck or trailer having an open body in the form of a platform without sides or stakes.

Fraud

A knowing misrepresentation of the truth or concealment of a material fact to induce another to act to his or her detriment.

G-L

Gross Negligence

A conscious and voluntary disregard of the need to use reasonable care, which is likely to cause foreseeable grave injury or harm to persons, property, or both.

Guardian

One who has the legal authority and duty to care for another’s person or property, especially because of the other’s infancy, incapacity or disability.

Hearing

A judicial session, usually open to the public, held for the purpose of deciding issues of face or of law, sometimes with witnesses testifying.

Hearsay

Traditionally, testimony that is given by a witness who relates not what he or she knows personally, but what others have said, and that is therefore dependent on the credibility of someone other than the witness.

Indemnify

To reimburse another for a loss suffered because of a third party’s act or default.

Injunction

A court order commanding or preventing an action.

Insurance

An agreement by which one party assumes a risk faced by another party in return for a premium payment.

Jaundice

Jaundice is the yellowish staining of the skin and sclerae (the whites of the eyes) that is caused by high levels in blood of the chemical bilirubin.

Judgment

A court’s final determination of the rights and obligations of the parties in a case.

Juror

A person serving on a jury panel.

Jury

A group of persons selected according to law and given the power to decide questions of fact and return a verdict in the case submitted to them.

Kernicterus

A form of preventable brain damage caused by severe jaundice in the newborn period.

Lawsuit

Any proceeding by a party or parties against another in a court of law.

Leading Question

A question that suggests the answer to the person being interrogated; especially a question that may be answered by a mere “yes” or “no”.

Legal Cause

A cause that is legally sufficient to result in liability.

Liability (Liable)

The quality or state of being legally obligated or accountable; legal responsibility to another or to society, enforceable by civil remedy or criminal punishment.

Lien

A legal right or interest that a creditor has in another’s property, lasting usually until a debt or duty that it secures is satisfied.

Limited Liability Company

A company – statutorily authorized in certain states – that is characterized by limited liability, management by members or managers, and limitations on ownership transfer. – Abbr. L.L.C.

Litigation

The process of carrying on a lawsuit.

Loss

The failure to keep possession of something.

Lost Earnings

Wages, salary, or other income that a person could have earned if he or she had not lost a job, suffered a disabling injury, or died.

Wages, salary, or other income that a person could have earned if he or she had not lost a job, suffered a disabling injury, or died.

M-R

Mediation

A method of dispute resolution involving a neutral third party who tries to help the disputing parties reach a mutually agreeable solution.

Medical Expense

An expense for medical treatment or healthcare, such as drug costs and health-insurance premiums.

Medical Malpractice

A healthcare provider’s failure to exercise the degree of care and skill that another in the same medical specialty would use under similar circumstances which causes the patient’s injury or death (often shortened to Med Mal).

Minor

A person who has not reached full legal age; a child or juvenile.

Misdiagnosis

An incorrect diagnosis.

Mitigate

To make less severe or intense.

Negligence

The failure to exercise that degree of care that a reasonably prudent person would have exercised in a similar situation, often called the failure to use reasonable care.

Oath

A solemn declaration, accompanied by a swearing to God or a revered person or thing, that one’s statement is true or that one will be bound to a promise.

Objection

A formal statement opposing something that has occurred, or is about to occur in court and seeking the judge’s immediate ruling on the point.

Opening Statement

At the outset of a trial, an advocate’s statement giving the fact-finder a preview of the case and of the evidence to be presented, but not containing argument.

Order

A command, direction or instruction.

Out-of-Court Settlement

The settlement and termination of a pending suit arrived at prior to a jury verdict or bench ruling.

Pain and Suffering

Physical discomfort or emotional distress compensable as an element of damages in torts.

Paralegal

A trained professional who assists a lawyer in duties related to the practice of law but who is not a licensed attorney.

Partnerships

A voluntary association of two or more persons who jointly own and carry on a business for profit.

Party

One who takes part in a transaction.

Perjury

The act or an instance of a person’s deliberately making material false or misleading statements while under oath.

Personal Injury

In a negligence action, any harm caused to a person, such as a broken bone, a cut, or a bruise; bodily injury.

Personal Property

Any movable or intangible thing that is subject to ownership and not classified as real property.

Petition

A formal written request presented to a court or other official body.

Plaintiff

The party who brings a civil suit in a court of law.

Pleadings

A formal document in which a party to a legal proceeding (especially a civil lawsuit) sets forth or responds to allegations, claims, denials or defenses.

Power of Attorney

An instrument granting someone authority to act as agent or attorney-in-fact for the grantor.

Probate

The judicial procedure by which a testamentary document is established to be a valid will.

Property Damages

Injury to real or personal property through another’s negligence, willful destruction or by some act of nature.

Proximate Cause

A cause that is legally sufficient to result in liability.

Punitive Damages

Damages awarded in addition to actual damages when the defendant acted with recklessness, malice or deceit.

Purchase Agreements

A sales contract.

Real Estate

Land and anything growing on, attached to, or erected on it, excluding anything that may be severed without injury to the land.

Reasonable Care

As a test of liability for negligence, the degree of care that a prudent and competent person engaged in the same line of business or endeavor would exercise under similar circumstances.

Recovery

The regaining or restoration of something lost or taken away.

Release

Liberation from an obligation, duty or demand.

S-Z

Service Mark

A name, phrase, or other device used to identify and distinguish the services of a certain provider.

Settlement

An agreement ending a dispute or lawsuit.

Standard of proof

The degree or level of proof demanded in a specific case, such as ‘beyond a reasonable doubt.

Statute of Limitations

A law passed by a legislative body governing the time beyond which a cause of action will not survive.

Subpoena

A summons commanding a person to appear before a court or other tribunal subject to a penalty for failing to comply.

Suit or Lawsuit

Any proceeding by a party or parties against another in a court of law.

Testimony

Evidence that a competent witness under oath or affirmation gives at trial or in an affidavit or deposition.

Third-Party

One who is not a party to a lawsuit, agreement or other transaction but who is somehow involved in the transaction; someone other than the principal parties.

Title

Legal evidence of a person’s ownership rights in property; an instrument (such as a deed) that constitutes such evidence.

Tort

A civil wrong for which a remedy may be obtained, usually in the form of damages.

Tort Reform

Tort reform refers to proposed changes in the civil justice system that would reduce victim’s rights or damages recoverable by those harmed through no fault of their own.

Tractor Trailer

A truck consisting of a tractor and trailer together.

Trademark

A word, phrase, logo or other graphic symbol used by a manufacturer or seller to distinguish its product or products from those of others.

Traumatic Brain Injury

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is the result of a force to the head, where physical portions of the brain are damaged and functioning is impaired.

Treble Damages

Damages that, by statute, are three times the amount that the fact-finder determines is owed.

Trial

A formal judicial examination of evidence and determination of legal claims in an adversary proceeding.

Trust Agreement or Declaration

The act by which the person who holds legal title to property or an estate acknowledges that the property is being held in trust for another person or for certain specified purposes.

Trustee

One who, having legal title to property, holds it in trust for the benefit of another and owes a fiduciary duty to that beneficiary.

Unfair Trade

An inequitable business practice; especially the act or an instance of a competitor’s repeating of words in a way that conveys a misrepresentation that materially injures the person who first used the words, by appropriating credit of some kind earned by the first user.

Verdict

The jury’s finding or decision on the factual issues of a civil case.

Waiver

The voluntary relinquishment or abandonment – express or implied – of a legal right or advantage.

Will

A document by which a person directs his or her estate to be distributed upon death.

Witness

One who gives testimony, under oath or affirmation in person, by oral or written deposition, or by affidavit.

Workers’ Compensation

A system of providing benefits to an employee for injuries occurring in the scope of employment.

Wrongful Death Action

A lawsuit brought on behalf of a decedent’s survivors for their damages resulting from a tortuous injury that caused the decedent’s death.