Aug 17, 2012 · 2U. August 17, 2012. Over hundreds of years, lawyers and judges seem to have developed a language of their own, rife with Latin terms you can't decipher without those ninth grade notes you lost after the final. This secret language gives legal professionals a certain dramatic mystique that can be intimidating, sexy and, as every law students knows, annoying …
The use of the term and/or is pervasive in legal language. Lawyers use it in all types of legal contexts — including statutes, contracts, and pleadings. Beginning in the 1930s, however, many judges decided that the term and/or should never be used in legal drafting. Ardent attacks on the term included charges that it was vague, if not ...
The language used in law is changing. Many lawyers are now adopting a plain English style. But there are still legal phrases that baffle non-lawyers. This guide is intended to help in two ways: • it should help non-lawyers understand legal phrases; and • it should give lawyers ideas for explaining the legal phrases that they use.
May 06, 2017 · “It is clear that a language of the law exists—one that is employed by lawyers and others who are learned in the law.” “A significant part of learning the law involves learning to speak, write, and interpret texts like a lawyer. These tasks involve learning a …
Objection Sustained or Sustained: When a lawyer objects to the form of a question or the answer a question calls for, the judge may say, “Objection sustained” or merely, “Sustained.” This means the evidence sought cannot be admitted or accepted as evidence.
A watershed decision is a court ruling that is significant in defining an issue's status under the law. Often it involves a higher overturning the rulimg of s lower court.
A deposition is a witness's sworn out-of-court testimony. It is used to gather information as part of the discovery process and, in limited circumstances, may be used at trial. The witness being deposed is called the "deponent."
Limited-scope representation is when you and a lawyer agree that the lawyer will handle some parts of your case and you will handle others. This is different from more traditional arrangements between lawyers and clients where a lawyer is hired to provide legal services on all aspects of a case, from start to finish.
Abstract: The “watershed” doctrine gives prisoners a constitutional basis to reopen their cases based on a new due process protection that would have made a difference had it been announced before their appeals were exhausted.Jun 21, 2016
The Mississippi River watershedThe Mississippi River watershed is the biggest watershed in the United States, draining more than three million square kilometers (one million square miles) of land. The Mississippi River watershed stretches from the Appalachian Mountains in the east to the Rocky Mountains in the west.Aug 23, 2019
What Is Deposition? Deposition refers to the process in which a gas changes directly to a solid without going through the liquid state. For example, when warm moist air inside a house comes into contact with a freezing cold windowpane, water vapor in the air changes to tiny ice crystals.Jul 3, 2019
After the conclusion of the deposition, both sides of the case will continue with the discovery phase. Discovery is an important part of a lawsuit. During discovery, the plaintiff and defendant's attorneys can communicate back and forth to swap information and evidence.Mar 9, 2021
Disposition vs Deposition A "disposition" is the final ruling in the case; a "deposition" is a sworn statement under oath.Jun 7, 2017
1 having a limit; restricted; confined. 2 without fullness or scope; narrow. 3 (of governing powers, sovereignty, etc.) restricted or checked, by or as if by a constitution, laws, or an assembly.
Forms of Legal Representation by a LawyerLimited Scope.Fixed Rate.Ghostwriting.Full Service.Jun 26, 2021
Also referred to as unbundled services, limited scope retainers allow a lawyer to provide limited services to a client, such as representing the client for only part of a legal matter. For example, a lawyer may draft pleadings on behalf of a client but not represent him or her in court.
The ASL fingerspelling provided here is most commonly used for proper names of people and places; it is also used in some languages for concepts for which no sign is available at that moment.
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Ardent attacks on the term included charges that it was vague, if not meaningless, with some authorities declaring it to be a “Janus-faced verbal monstrosity,” an “inexcusable barbarism ,” a “mongrel expression,” an “abominable invention,” a “crutch of sloppy thinkers,” and “senseless jargon.”. Still today, critics maintain ...
Despite the few contexts in which and/or should be avoided, the construct should not be discarded simply because individuals occasionally misuse the term . After all, legal drafters and courts commonly struggle with using and interpreting “and” and “or,” words that themselves are riddled with ambiguity. And/or has a precise meaning; it allows ...
And/or has a precise meaning; it allows for the possibility of conveying options in the alternative. As with many consistent errors in legal writing , the problem lies not with the term and/or itself, but with a lack of close attention to detail.
Lawyers use it in all types of legal contexts — including statutes, contracts, and pleadings. Beginning in the 1930s, however, many judges decided that the term and/or should never be used in legal drafting.
Conversely, some legal areas — such as jury instructions, search warrants, and jury verdicts — do not typically allow a drafter to provide options, making and/or unsuitable. Despite the few contexts in which and/or should be avoided, ...
And/or, however, is not ambiguous at all. It has a definite, agreed-upon meaning: when used properly, the construct means “A or B or both.”. In most areas of law, there simply is no compelling reason to avoid using and/or. The term is clear and concise. It derives criticism mainly from the inability of people to use it correctly.
an arrangement under which goods can be kept by the potential buyer for a period while their resale is attempted. Unsold goods can be returned if the conditions of the contract have been kept to and the buyer pays for the goods used.
an interest which starts when a previous interest finishes. When more than one person has been left an interest in land the first person to possess an interest will have to die before the next person can possess an interest in the land, and so on.
It is often done to give security for money owed or to make sure that something is done as promised.
The memorandum gives details of a company's name, objects (purposes) and share capital. It also sets out the limits of the shareholders' liability if the company has to be wound up. The articles set out the members' rights and the directors' powers.
The language used in law is changing. Many lawyers are now adopting a plain English style. But there are still legal phrases that baffle non-lawyers. This guide is intended to help in two ways:
The Language of the Law has rules of its own, including “the legal interpretive rules which tell the speakers how to interpret the language.”. Legal interpretive rules are like the interpretive rules of ordinary language, in that each set of rules is part of the “regularities” of that language. And just as the interpretive rules ...
While there are certainly ways in which legal language use-characteristics is distinctive, the features that are relevant to legal interpretation relate almost entirely to word meaning: specialized legal terms and ordinary words that have specialized legal meaning.
The components of a nontechnical language (i.e., of ordinary language) include word meanings and “rules that [language users] use to understand speech.”. Those rules “include not only grammatical rules but any rules that tell speakers how to interpret the language.”.
McGinnis and Rappaport are the primary advocates of an approach to constitutional interpretation known as original-methods originalism, under which courts today are to apply the interpretive methods that prevailed at the time of the framing ( pdf ).
A literature professor can talk about “Shakespeare’s language,” meaning the ways in which Shakespeare deployed Early Modern English. And of course we often use the phrase legal language to refer to the ways in which lawyers and lawmakers deploy Modern English. I’ll refer to this as the “characteristics-of-use” sense (language use-characteristics ).
Language can be used to refer to the system of communication that humans (but no other species) are capable of, in which small units of meaning called words are combined into larger units of meaning called phrases, clauses, and so forth.
The latest contribution to that discussion is a recently-posted draft paper by John McGinnis and Michael Rappaport, titled The Constitution and the Language of the Law. (h/t Legal Theory Blog)
This term refers to the actual act that a criminal defendant is accused of doing. In contrast, Mens Rea refers to the “mental state” of a criminal defendant. Both are required for most successful criminal prosecutions.
Mens Rea is a common term in a criminal courtroom because it is such a critical element behind many criminal acts. In order to be convicted of most crimes, prosecutors must show beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant acted with both a Mens Rea and an Actus Rea.
The phrase “demur” is an old English word meaning “to object.” A demurrer is a form of pleading that attorneys use to object to lawsuits. For instance, attorneys might file a demurrer if they challenge a lawsuit on the grounds that it violates a statute of limitations.
The Latin language is used in legal lingo because the U.S. employs a variation of the ancient Roman law that is referred to as “Common Law.”. All of this antediluvian tradition has carried over into the modern practice of law today. Even without the Latin influence, judges and attorneys often use very archaic English words.
The term is often abbreviated to “ Id ” when citing precedent cases.
This term means “ the thing speaks for itself .” It is most often used in personal injury law to describe situations where the court can assume that someone was negligent even if it is unclear how the negligence occurred. If a medical patient has a surgical tool inside of her abdomen post-surgery, it can be assumed that someone was negligent even if the exact cause has yet to be determined.
It is commonly put in place of the word “actual” to demonstrate that a court will regard as a fact any authority that is being exercised, even if all the legal obligations may not have been satisfied.
good contract clearly explains eachparty's consideration. Usually, one partysupplies goods or services, and the otherpays money. If the consideration is clear,the phrase quoted above is unnecessaryand should be omitted. If the consideration
The phrase "unless otherwise agreed" islogically unnecessary so long as the par-ties remain free to amend the contract. Youmay, however, want to use it sparingly toindicate a section where the parties specif-ically expect a change, such as for prices