8/12/2019 Definition of Legal Terms and Jargons for Legal Research and Writing

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1.  Criminal Law – Branch or division of Law which defines crimes,

treats of their nature, and provides for their punishment

2.  Civil Law – The law of any particular state, now usually called

municipal law

3.  Administrative Proceedings – A proceeding in or before an

administrative body as distinguished from proceeding in court;

The proceeding that takes place before an administrative agency

and not a court of law

4.  Affirm – To state that you will tell the truth, though without

swearing an oath; to confirm that something is correct

5.  Appeal – A proceeding undertaken to have a decision

reconsidered by a higher authority; especially the submission of

a lower court’s or agency’s decision to a higher court for reviewand possible reversal

6.  Reverse – To overturn (a judgment) on appeal

7.  Defendant – A person against whom court proceedings are

brought

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

9.  Accused – A person who has been blamed for wrongdoing; A

person against whom legal proceedings have been initiated

10. Motion for Summary Judgment – A request that the court enter

judgment without a trial because there is no genuine issue of

material fact to be decided by a fact-finder – that is, because the

evidence is legally insufficient to support a verdict in the non-

movant’s favor

11. Remand – The act or an instance of sending something (such as a

case, claim, or person) back for further action; An order

remanding a case, claim, or person

12. Real Party in Interest – The principle that the person entitled by

law to enforce a substantive right should be the one under whose

name the action is prosecuted

13. Petition for review on Certiorari

14. Prohibition – A law or order that forbids a certain action; An

extraordinary writ issued by an appellate court to prevent a

lower court from exceeding its jurisdiction or to prevent a

nonjudicial officer or entity from exercising a power

15. Writ of Habeas Corpus – A writ employed to bring a person

before a court, most frequently to ensure that the person’s

imprisonment or detention is not illegal

16. Ponente

17. Per Curiam – By the court; By a court’s or judge’s decision; Aproposition per curiam is one made by the judge

18. En Banc – With all judges present and participating; in full court

19. Majority Opinion – An opinion shared by a majority of the judges

on a panel

20. Minority Opinion – 

21. Dissenting Opinion – Am opinion by one or more judges who

disagree with the decision reached by the majority

22. Concurring Opinion – An opinion that is given by another

authority that is in agreeance and upholds the opinion of the first

authority

23. Separate Opinion - An opinion written by a judge separately

from other judges, which can either agree or disagree with

the opinion written by majority of judges

24. Ratio Decidendi – “The reason for deciding”; The principle or

rule of law on which a court’s decision is founded; The rule of

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law on which a later court thinks that a previous court founded

its decision; a general rule without which a case must have been

decided otherwise

25. Obiter Dictum – “Something said in passing”; A judicial comment

made while delivering a judicial opinion, but one that is

unnecessary to the decision in the case and therefore not

precedential

26. Stare Decisis – The doctrine of precedent, under which a court

must follow earlier judicial decisions when the same points arise

again in litigation

27. Issues – The matter/s in dispute in a court action; The children

or other lineal descendants of a person; The total of bank notes

in circulation within a country28. Assignment of Errors – A specification of the trial court’s alleged

errors on which the appellant relies in seeking an appellate

court’s reversal, vacation, or modification of adverse judgment  

29. Pleadings – A formal documents in which a party to a legal

proceeding (especially a civil lawsuit) sets forth or responds to

allegations, claims, denials, or defenses

30. Cause of Action – A group of operative facts giving rise to one or

more bases for suing; a factual situation that entitles one person

to obtain a remedy in court from another person

31. Affirmative Defenses – A defendant’s assertion of facts and

arguments that, if true, will defeat the plaintiff’s or prosecution’s

claim even of all the allegations in the complaint are true

32. Cross-Claim – A claim asserted between codefendants or

coplaintiffs in a case and that relates to the subject of the original

claim or counterclaim

33. Prima Facie Case – The establishment of a legally required

rebuttable presumption; A party’s production of enough

evidence to allow the fact-trier to infer the fact at issue and rule

in the party’s favor 

34. On Point – Discussing the precise issue now at hand; apposite

35. On all fours – Squarely on point on both facts and law; nearly

identical in all material ways

36. Question of Fact – An issue that has not been predetermined and

authoritatively answered by the law; An issue that does not

involve what the law is on a given point; A disputed issue to be

resolved by the jury in a jury trial or by the judge in a bench trial

37. Question of Law – An issue to be decided by the judge,

concerning the application or interpretation of the law; Aquestion that the law itself has authoritatively answered, so that

the court may not answer it as a matter of discretion; An issue

about what the law is on a particular point; an issue in which

parties argue about, and the court must decide, what the true

rule of law is; An issue that, although it may turn on a factual

point, is reserved for the court and excluded from the jury; an

issue that is exclusively within the province of the judge and not

the jury