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