Abet: the Act of Encouraging Or Trying to Cause Another Person to Do Something, for Instance

Legal Lexicon

Abet: the act of encouraging or trying to cause another person to do something, for instance a crime

Accessory: One who aids or contributes to the commission or concealment of a crime or assists others in avoiding apprehension for the crime but not present when the crime was committed.

Acquitted: found not guilty in a court of law

Act of God: an event, such as a natural disaster, for which no human person is responsible in any way

Actus reus: Latin for a “prohibited act”

Ad hoc: Latin for a “specific purpose”; for instance a committee has been created to deal with a single issue, and will no longer continue once that one issue has been dealt with

Ad infinitum: Latin for “endlessly,” without limit, infinitely

Addendum: Latin for an extra added part to a written document

Adjourn: to temporarily stop trial proceedings with the intention of starting them back up again once something has been done

Administrative law: the branch of law which deals with how courtroom proceedings must be run

Affidavit: a signed statement swearing that something, for example the contents of a report are, to the best of your knowledge, true.

Age of majority: the age at which a person gains all adult freedoms and responsibilities

Alibi: evidence that a suspect was somewhere else when a crime occurred.

Alimony: money owed periodically once a divorce has been finalized

Amend: to change or alter a written document

Anarchy: a state of there being no real government, organization or system of leadership.

Appeal: to ask a higher court to re-examine the judgment made by a court one has already appeared before

Arrest: to take into police custody

Arson: the intentional setting on fire of a building

Assault: the touching of another person with the intent to harm, without that person’s permission

Attorney: An alternate word for lawyers, barristers or solicitors, used mostly in the USA

Automatism: an act done by a person who is not conscious of what s/he is doing, perhaps due to sleepwalking, spasm or injury to the head, but not merely through intoxication.

Bail: a promise of cash or property owed if the accused, who would otherwise remain in custody, does not arrive to court

Bankruptcy: an official declaration that someone involved in business is unable to continue, and will give up his or her rights to run his own business affairs, but must use a trustee

Barrister: a trial lawyer; lawyer who specializes in courtroom law only

Battered woman defense: arguing that a woman accused of murdering a man, has been in an abusive relationship with him, and so is acting in self-defense.

Battery: contact with a person which directly or indirectly causes injury

Bench: the judge, while court is in session

Beneficiary: a person who will benefit from money put in a trust

Bigamy: being married to two people at the same time

Bona Fide: Latin for “good faith.” For example, signing a contract with good, honest intentions, or selling products one believes are good, working products.

Brief: a short summary of a court case

Burden of proof: an agreement that if something cannot be proven incorrect, it will be assumed to be true

Burglary: the act of breaking into someone else’s residence for the commission of a crime

By-law: a local law which only relates to a given town or city

Canon law: a legal system created by the Church, which is meant to govern a society.

Capital punishment: punishing a crime by putting the convicted party to death

Case Law: any set of rulings on law which is guided by rulings in previous cases.

Caveat: an official warning, such as a written warning that someone else is also seeking to acquire property that you are interested in obtaining

Charge: to formally accuse a person of having committed a specific criminal offense

Child support: Periodic money payments payable by a non-custodial parent, to the custodial parent, for the care of his or her minor child.

Circumstantial evidence: evidence which allows judge and jury to infer, guess or deduce things but doesn’t prove anything directly

Citation: an order given by a court, often to appear before it (often used for traffic offences, or other situations in which actual arrest would appear overly harsh)

Civil Disobedience: a symbolic or ritualistic violation of the law, usually to make a point about the system being flawed.

Civil law: a system of laws (often involving lawsuits) that are worked out between citizens with a judge presiding, rather than being on an official list of prohibited actions, as in criminal law

Clandestine: Something that is purposely kept from the view or knowledge of others either in violation of the law or to conduct or conceal some illegal purpose

Class action: When different persons combine their lawsuits because the facts and the defendant are so similar

Collateral: property which has been guaranteed in case something loaned is not returned

Common Law: law developed by judges, courts, and similar tribunals, stated in decisions that nominally decide individual cases but that in addition have precedential effect on future cases

Common-law relationship: two unmarried persons living together as if married

Compulsion: the state of being forced to do something, usually through threats

Conditional discharge: a guilty sentence in which, if the sentenced person agrees to certain things, no criminal record will be kept

Constitution: The basic, fundamental law of a state which sets out how that state will be organized and the powers and authorities of government between different political units and citizens.

Contempt of court: An act of defiance of court authority or dignity. Conduct that is disobedient, obstructive or disrespectful to the Court.

Contract Law: that branch of law which deals with written agreements between individuals or corporations

Copyright: The exclusive right to produce or reproduce, to perform in public or to publish an original literary, computer-based or artistic work

Council: a group of experts who come together to give an opinion on matters and offer advice

Court martial: proceedings of a military court which seeks to punish offences committed while serving in the military

Crime: An act or omission which is prohibited by criminal law and punished, usually by fine or imprisonment

Criminal Law: That body of the law that deals with conduct considered so harmful to society as a whole that it is prohibited by statute, prosecuted and punished by the government

Criminal Negligence: Reckless disregard for the lives or safety of other persons.

Cross examination: term used to describe when a lawyer asks questions of the other party’s witness

Crown Prosecutor: a lawyer who represents the government in a criminal case, accusing the defendant of having committed an offence

Damages: a cash compensation ordered by the court to offset damages, loss or suffering

Death: Irreversible cessation of circulatory and respiratory functions and of all functions of the entire brain, including the brain stem

Decedent: person who has died

Defamation: An attack on the good reputation of a person, by slander or libel.

Defendant: the accused in a criminal law case

Defense Attorney: a lawyer who represents the interests of someone who is standing trial for a criminal offense.

Deposition: The official statement by a witness taken in writing (as opposed to testimony which where a witnesses give their perception of the facts verbally).

Detain: to keep in custody without the possibility of freedom of movement from place to place.

Discharge: A sentence of a person found guilty of a crime in which that person does not receive a criminal record of conviction, either absolutely or conditionally.

Divorce: The final, legal ending of a marriage, by Court order.

Docket: An official court record book which lists all the cases before the court and which may also note the status or action required for each case.

Domestic law: law dealing with adults in family and intimate relationships.

Double Jeopardy: A prohibition against being tried or sentenced twice for the same offense.

Due process: every citizen under every circumstance has rights to the full legal process.

Duress: the state of being forced to do something.

Embezzle: The illegal transfer of money or property that, although now possessed legally by the individual, was originally diverted to the individual personally by his or her fraudulent action.

Entrapment: The inducement, by law enforcement officers or their agents, of another person to commit a crime for the purposes of bringing charges for the commission of that artificially-provoked crime.

Estate law: A term used by the law to describe that part of the law which regulates wills, probate and other subjects related to the distribution of a deceased person’s estate.

Euthanasia: refers to the purposeful ending of life to end suffering, often called “mercy killing”

Evidence: Anything (witness testimony, physical items, DNA) which functions as proof of the facts presented at a trial.

Exhibit: A document or object shown to the court as evidence in a trial.

Extortion: Forcing a person to give up property through the use of violence, fear or under pretense of authority.

Extrajudicial measures: ways of dealing with youth who have broken the law, besides going to court, for instance by official notes to parents, or police warnings.

Felony: A serious crime for which the punishment is prison for more than a year (or, in America, death.)

Feudal system: a combination of legal and military customs in medieval Europe, a way of structuring society around relationships derived from the holding of land in exchange for service or labour.

Fraud: underhanded conduct designed to manipulate another person to give up money or something of value by deceit.

Garnishment: The seizing of a person's property, credit or salary, on the basis of a law which allows it, and for the purposes of paying off a debt.

Gavel: A wooden mallet used by a judge to bring proceedings to a start or to an end or to command attention in his or her court.

Guardian: An individual who, by legal appointment or by the effect of a written law, is given custody of both the property and the person of one who is unable to manage their own affairs, such as a child or mentally-disabled person.

Habeas corpus: a court petition which orders that a person being detained be produced before a judge for a hearing to decide whether the detention is lawful.

Harassment: Unsolicited words or conduct which tend to annoy, alarm or abuse another person.

Hearsay: Any evidence that is offered by a witness of which they do not have direct knowledge but, rather, their testimony is based on what others have said to them.

Homicide: The word includes all occasions where one human being, by act or omission, takes away the life of another for any reason.

Hostile Witness: a witness who starts to openly give testimony which will hurt the case of the lawyer who calls him or her

Hung Jury: a jury, all of the members of which is required to agree fully on a verdict, but being unable to agree.

Husband-wife privilege: A special right that married persons have to keep communications between them secret and even inaccessible to a court of law.

Impaired: A deterioration of an individual’s judgment and decrease in his or her physical ability.

Inadmissible: not allowed in a court of law; often used to describe rejected witness testimony or evidence that will be ignored.

Incest: The crime of sexual involvement with a blood relative usually including a parent, child, sibling, grandparent or grandchild.

Indictable offence: a crime; an act which can result in a citizen being charged.

Indictment: The formal document that charges a person with a crime. It is on the basis of this that an accused person must stand trial.

Injunction: A court order that prohibits a party from doing something (restrictive) or compels them to do something (mandatory).

Insanity: Disorder which impairs the human mind and prevents a person from awareness that his or her act was wrong.

Insider Trading: employees of a company getting involved in the trade of its stock and unfairly taking advantage of information that others do not possess.

Intoxication: being in an altered state of consciousness through some kind of chemical disruption/poisoning of the mind and body.

Intra vires: a term in corporate law referring to acts done, often within a company, with the full proper official authority required to do them; Latin for “within the powers.”

Judge: individual, appointed by the federal justice system, who makes final decisions in a court of law and oversees proceedings there.

Jurisprudence: the “science of law.” The decisions relating to exactly how judges and other members of the legal profession choose to bring about justice, given the system within which they work.

Jurist: a scholar of the law; in Canada and the U.S., specifically a judge. Someone who can judge the actions and comments of opposing lawyers, due to a superior knowledge of how the law works.

Jury: A group of citizens randomly selected from the general population and brought together to assist justice by deciding which version, in their opinion, constitutes 'the truth' given different evidence by opposing parties.

Justice: A state of affairs in which conduct or action is both fair and right, given the circumstances.

Kangaroo Court: A judicial proceeding or trial where the basic legal rights of a party are “jumped over” because the judge or jury’s minds are already made up from the beginning.

Kidnap: abducting a person with intent to cause the person to be confined or imprisoned against the person’s will, to cause the person to be unlawfully sent or transported out of Canada against the person’s will; or to hold the person for ransom or to service against the person’s will.

Larceny: A criminal offence now more commonly referred to as theft, covering the unlawful or fraudulent removal of another's property without the owner's consent.

Law: All the rules of conduct that have been approved by the government and which are in force over a certain territory and which must be obeyed by all persons on that territory.