| Legal Term |
Definition |
| Arbitrary |
The term arbitrary describes a course of action or a decision that is not based on reason or judgment but on personal will ordiscretion without regard to rules or standards. An arbitrary decision is one made without regard for the facts and circumstances presented, and it connotes a disregard ofthe evidence. |
| Assault |
An attempt to injure to someone else, and in some circumstances can include threats or threatening behavior against others. One common definition is an intentional attempt, using violence or force, to injure or harm another person. |
| Battery |
Is the intentional offensive or harmful touching of another person without their consent. Under this general definition, a battery offense requires all of the following: intentional touching; the touching must be harmful or offensive; no consent from the victim. |
| Bona fide |
Honest; genuine; actual; authentic; acting without the intention of defrauding. |
| Breach (of Duty) |
A rebuttable presumption or inference that the defendant was negligent, which arises uponproof that the instrumentality or condition causing the injury was in the defendant's exclusive control and that the accidentwas one that ordinarily does not occur in the absence of Negligence. |
| Brief |
A summary of the important points of a longer document. An abstract of a published judicial opinion prepared by a lawstudent as part of an assignment in the Case Method study of law. A written document drawn up by an attorney for a party ina lawsuit or by a party himself or herself appearing pro se that concisely states the following: (1) issues of a lawsuit; (2) factsthat bring the parties to court; (3) relevant laws that can affect the subject of the dispute; and (4) arguments that explain howthe law applies to the particular facts so that the case will be decided in the party's favor. |
| Case Law |
Case law is defined as a body of law created by decisions of the judicial branch |
| Code |
A systematic and comprehensive compilation of laws, rules, or regulations that are consolidated and classified according tosubject matter. |
| Contributory Negligence |
a doctrine of common law that if a person was injured in part due to his/her own negligence (his/her negligence"contributed" to the accident), the injured party would not be entitled to collect any damages (money) from another party whosupposedly caused the accident. |
| De facto |
adj. Latin for "in fact." Often used in place of "actual" to show that the court will treat as a fact authority being exercised or anentity acting as if it had authority, even though the legal requirements have not been met. |
| De jure |
Having complied with all the requirements imposed by law. |
| Defamation |
Any intentional false communication, either written or spoken, that harms a person's reputation; decreases the respect,regard, or confidence in which a person is held; or induces disparaging, hostile, or disagreeable opinions or feelings againsta person. |
| Discrimination |
In Constitutional Law, the grant by statute of particular privileges to a class arbitrarily designated from a sizable number ofpersons, where no reasonable distinction exists between the favored and disfavored classes. Federal laws, supplemented bycourt decisions, prohibit discrimination in such areas as employment, housing, voting rights, education, and access to publicfacilities. They also proscribe discrimination on the basis of race, age, sex, nationality, disability, or religion. In addition, stateand local laws can prohibit discrimination in these areas and in others not covered by federal laws. |
| Dissenting Opinion |
An explicit disagreement by one or more judges with the decision of the majority on a case before them. |
| Due Process |
noun due process of law, legal fairness, legal safeguards, protection against deprivations,proteccion guarantees, protection of deprivation of accepted legal principlesGenerally: fundamental fairnessSpecifically: Fifth Amendment, Fourteenth Amendment |
| En banc |
A dissent is often accompanied by a written dissenting opinion, and the terms dissent and dissenting opinion are usedinterchangeably. |
| Establishment Clause |
The Establishment Clause prohibits the government from interfering with individual religious beliefs. The government cannotenact laws aiding any religion or establishing an official state religion. The courts have interpreted the Establishment Clauseto accomplish the separation of church and state on both the national and state levels of government.The authors of the FirstAmendment drafted the Establishment Clause to address the problem of government sponsorship and support of religiousactivity. |
| Exempt Employee |
The Fair Labor Standards Act contains dozens of exemptions under which specific categories of employers and employees are exempted from overtime requirements. The most common exemptions are the white-collar exemptions for administrative, executive, and professional employees, computer professionals, and outside sales employees. There is a also a lesser known exemption for certain retail or service organizations. The primary advantages of classifying employees as exempt are that you don’t have to track their hours or pay them overtime, no matter how many hours they work. |
| Fiduciary |
An individual in whom another has placed the utmost trust and confidence to manage and protect property or money. Therelationship wherein one person has an obligation to act for another's benefit. |
| Foreseeability |
The facility to perceive, know in advance, or reasonably anticipate that damage or injury will probably ensue from acts oromissions. |
| Free Exercise Clause |
Free Exercise Clause refers to the section of the First Amendment italicized here: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof... |
| In loco parentis |
(of a teacher or other adult responsible for children) in the place of a parent. |
| Integration |
The bringing together of separate elements to create a whole unit. The bringing together of people from the differentdemographic and racial groups that make up U.S. society. |
| Invitee |
An individual who enters another's premises as a result of an express or implied invitation of the owner or occupant for theirmutual gain or benefit. |
| Liable |
adjective: Legally responsible for something avoidable that happens, as in cases of negligence. Considered at fault (even indirectly) for an action or incident. Might be required to provide related compensation. |
| Libel |
Libel is a published false statement that is damaging to a person's reputation; a written defamation. |
| Licensee |
n. a person given a license by government or under private agreement. |
| Malfeasance |
the willful and intentional action that injures a party |
| Malice |
The intentional commission of a wrongful act, absent justification, with the intent to cause harm to others; conscious violationof the law that injures another individual; a mental state indicating a disposition in disregard of social duty and a tendencytoward malfeasance. |
| Misfeasance |
the willful inappropriate action or intentional incorrect action or advice |
| Negligence |
Negligence describes a situation in which a person acts in a careless (or "negligent") manner, which results in someone else getting hurt or property being damaged. |
| Non-exempt Employee |
Most employees are entitled to overtime pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act. They are called non-exempt employees. Employers must pay them one-and-a-half times their regular rate of pay when they work more than 40 hours in a week. The biggest problem most employers have with nonexempt employees is miscalculating how much overtime workers are owed. |
| Nuisance |
A legal action to redress harm arising from the use of one's property. The two types of nuisance are private nuisance and public nuisance. A private nuisance is a civil wrong; it is theunreasonable, unwarranted, or unlawful use of one's property in a manner that substantially interferes with the enjoyment oruse of another individual's property, without an actual Trespass or physical invasion to the land. A public nuisance is acriminal wrong; it is an act or omission that obstructs, damages, or inconveniences the rights of the community. |
| Precedent |
A principle or rule established in a previous legal case that is either binding on or persuasive for a court or other tribunal when deciding subsequent cases with similar issues or facts. |
| Prima facie |
Based on the first impression; accepted as correct until proved otherwise; something which appears to be true when you first consider it. |
| Procedural Due Process |
Procedural due process. Principle required by the Constitution that when the state or federal government acts in such a way that denies a citizen of a life, liberty, or property interest, the person must first be given notice and the opportunity to be heard. |
| Quid pro quo |
The mutual consideration that passes between two parties to acontractual agreement, thereby rendering the agreement valid and binding. |
| Reasonable |
Reasonable is defined as just, proper, ordinary, fair, one that exercises average care, skill and judgment in conduct. The Reasonable-man standard refers to the way most people would react in a given situation. |
| Segregation |
The act or process of separating a race, class, or ethnic group from a society's general population. |
| Separate but Equal |
A concept that gave the states the right to segregate races of people in public transportation. This idea was extended to allow races to have separate but similar quality schools. it was subsequently ruled unconstitutional. |
| Slander |
Slander is in which someone tells one or more persons an untruth about another, which untruth will harm the reputation of the person defamed. Slander is a civil wrong and can be the basis for a lawsuit. |
| Standard of Care |
the watchfulness, attention, caution and prudence that a reasonable person in the circumstances would exercise. If aperson's actions do not meet this standard of care, then his/her acts fail to meet the duty of care which all people(supposedly) have toward others. Failure to meet the standard is negligence, and any damages resulting therefrom may beclaimed in a lawsuit by the injured party. The problem is that the "standard" is often a subjective issue upon which reasonablepeople can differ. |
| Statute |
An act of a legislature that declares, proscribes, or commands something; a specific law, expressed in writing. |
| Substantive Due Process |
in United States constitutional law, is a principle allowing courts to protect certain rights deemed fundamental from government interference, even where procedural protections are present. Courts have identified the basis for such protection from the due process clauses of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution, which prohibit the federal and state governments, respectively, from depriving any person of "life, liberty, or property, without due process of law. |
| Tort |
French for wrong, a civil wrong, or wrongful act, whether intentional or accidental, from which injury occurs to another.Torts include all negligence cases as well as intentional wrongs which result in harm. Therefore tort law is one of the majorareas of law (along with contract, real property and criminal law), and results in more civil litigation than any other category.Some intentional torts may also be crimes such as assault, battery, wrongful death, fraud, conversion (a euphemism fortheft), and trespass on property and form the basis for a lawsuit for damages by the injured party. Defamation, includingintentionally telling harmful untruths about another, either by print or broadcast (libel) or orally (slander), is a tort and used tobe a crime as well. |
| Tort Immunity |
In tort cases, there are certain intervening factors which allow individuals immunity, from their actions. Immunity implies either, that the person could not understand the risks associated with their actions, or that they can not be held liable because they were acting on behalf of the government or other entity. (The definition of a tort is a wrongdoing where a person causes damage or injury and can be sued for their action.) |
| Vicarious Liability |
Vicarious Liability is when the district is held responsible for the act of negligence or intentional wrongdoings of their employees within their scope of employment. |
| Writ of Certiorari |
a writ by which a superior court can call up for review the record of a proceeding in an inferior court. |