Glossary

Legal glossary

763 definitions · page 2 of 13.

Fictitious Business Name: Fictitious Business Name information: This is a name that will not include an individual owner surname, or the partners, or where even the nature of the business is not obvious by the name alone.
Fictitious Name: Fictitious Name information: Any kind of name under which business is conducted, other than the name of a person.
File information: This can be many things, but usually refers to the record of events, or the collection of papers that constitute one case.
Filing Fee information: This is the charge due on the filing of suit in a particular jurisdiction. The fee is usually set by statute or set by the governing body of a county. Where a party cannot afford the fee there is always a provision for waiver of the fee. Filing fees are…
Filing Status Information: A taxpayer must make an election of tax filing status. An individual taxpayer may elect to file single, married filing jointly, married filing separately, or as head of household. The filing status chosen can have a direct and important impact of tax rate…
Finance Charge information: An additional fee paid, by way of interest, on installment loan account or credit card accounts.
Financial Planner Information: A financial planner is an investment professional that will meet with an investor and give advice on how best to meet the investor's long-term financial objectives. The planner may also advise that the goals may not be achievable. In any case, the financial…
Financial Statement Information: A financial statement is a written document containing a statement of financial condition at a certain time, based on assets and liabilities, for either a person or a corporation.
Finders Fee information: A fee that is charged by a person that puts two parties together for a business opportunity or transaction.
Finding of Fact information: This may be done by judge or jury. At the end of a trial the judge may issue written findings of fact and conclusions of law, dispositive on various issues in the case, if requested by a party to do so.
First Chair information: Slang expression for the main attorney during an actual trial.
First Degree Murder information: Most jurisdictions define First Degree Murder to be knowingly causing the death of a person after deliberating upon the matter. Murder generally is broken up into degrees. See Second Degree Murder.
Fishing Expedition information: A classic objection to overbroad discovery requests is to assert that the requester is seeking material beyond the scope of the pleadings and is in fact fishing for other information, not now part of the case, in order to support an additional count or cause…
Fitness for a Particular Purpose information: Every seller implicitly warrants that the goods he sells are fit and will perform well for the purpose a buyer can reasonably anticipate using the goods for. A seller, basically, has a duty to provide suitable goods.
Fixed In A Tangible Medium Of Expression information: In copyright law, the item for which copyright protection is sought must have been recorded in some physical way, such as written on paper, or recorded on tape or digitally, etc.
Fixed Pricing information: Unlawfully making an agreement with a competitor to set a price in a market. This is a mutually agreed upon price.
Fixed Rate Mortgage information: A mortgage interest rate that will not change, but is fixed, for the entire term or life of the loan.
Fixture information: Personal property that has been permanently affixed to the real property or the structure on the real property such that it is considered part of the realty.
Flat Tax Information: A Flat Tax is a tax that is applied at an identical rate for all incomes, high or low. While the flat tax will make the tax process much simpler, there are fairness issues involved. Opponents to the flat tax argue that it is inequitable in application…
Forbearance information: Delaying or refusing to assert a legal right, especially the right to enforce a debt or pursue a remedy for non-payment of a loan.
Forcible Entry information: Entering the land of another with force or violence such that the owner or one with the right to possess is moved to relent to the entry.
Foreclosure Information: Foreclosure is a legal procedure by which an owner's right to possess a piece of real property is extinguished by a forced sale. The owner typically must default on a loan before foreclosure can occur. Foreclosure statutes require notice to the owner and…
Forensic Accountant: A Forensic Accountant is an accounting professional, virtually always a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), who is engaged by one side or the other in a dispute to review the accounting practices of a party. The point of the review is to prove up the…
Forensics: Forensics, or Forensic Science, is an increasingly popular field of law enforcement science. This may be due to the several CSI crime scene investigation television programs that are being broadcast. Forensic science deals primarily with legal evidence…
Forex Foreign Exchange: Foreign exchange is the process enabling the buying and selling of the currencies of the different nations of the world. The foreign exchange market, or the Forex, as it is commonly known, is where these currency exchanges are executed. Without the ability…
Forex: Foreign Exchange: Foreign exchange is the process enabling the buying and selling of the currencies of the different nations of the world. The foreign exchange market, or the Forex, as it is commonly known, is where these currency exchanges are executed. Without the ability…
Forfeiture information: A type of punishment for a crime such that a right (to vote, for example) is automatically forfeit upon conviction.
Forgery information: Altering, or signing, another's signature, or the written work of another, for the purpose of fraud.
Forum information: The site of the court where the action is pending. Something like venue.
Forum Non Conveniens information: Where a court, for the convenience of the parties, declines jurisdiction of a case, moving the case to another, more convenient forum.
Forum Shopping information: Looking for a favorable court or a favorable venue, rather than using the most obvious one. For example, joining a defendant on a thin liability theory in order to get the case to his jurisdiction, where juries give high verdicts. This is good lawyering, but…
Four Corners Rule information: This is the "entire document" rule in contract law. In cases where the meaning of a contract clause is in question, guidance should be gathered from all four corners of the contract, not just the clause, or neighboring clauses, at issue..
Frame information: Falsely setting up another to take the blame or for arrest or conviction of a crime.
Franchise: A franchise is a privilege granted to another that allows a sole right within a territory or market to engage in a certain business or deal in a certain trademarked product. A franchise agreement will be drawn up between the franchisor and the franchisee…
Fraud information: Intentionally perverting the truth in order to gain an unfair advantage. False representations of the quality of goods is fraud.
Frauds Statute of information: The ancient Statute of Frauds required land transfers to be in writing and signed by the grantor.
Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) information: Many government documents and records must be disclosed upon proper request. The FOIA sets up how to make a proper request and provides a remedy for appeal of denials.
Freehold information: An interest in real property or immovable personal property that is of an indefinite duration. A life estate is a freehold interest.
Freeze out information: Closing off, or keeping a minority shareholder from exercising a right through concerted action by a majority of the shareholders.
Fresh Pursuit information: The common law right of a police officer to go outside his jurisdiction if in close and recent pursuit of a felon. Modernly, this refers to extra-territorial police chases.
Friendly Suit information: In a settled case, some require court approval. For example, wrongful death, and settlements where minors have been involved, will require court approval. The settling parties file a friendly suit for the sole purpose of obtaining that approval.
Frivolous Suit information: A baseless lawsuit. Sanctions are in order where claims are frivolous.
Fruit of the Poisonous Tree information: After determination that primary evidence was illegally obtained and may not be admitted into evidence, the defense will follow up with a motion to exclude any secondary evidence that arose directly as fruit from the tainted tree.
FSBO information: Acronym for For Sale By Owner which connotes an informal transaction of personal or real property, without the involvement of agents.
Full Faith and Credit Clause information: Under the constitution all states are to give the law of other states credence.
Future Interest information: A vested interest in real property that will not arise until the future.
Futures Contract information: Futures are assets in the form of contract, such as stocks, or commodities, that are bought or sold for future acceptance or delivery.
Gag Order Information: A gag order is a judge's order made in a particular case that prohibits the litigants and attorneys from publicly commenting on the progress or details of the matter.
Garnishment Information: Garnishment is a legal process that allows a judgment creditor to attempt to collect the debt due from the defendant directly from defendant's employer or bank account. The wages or account are sent to the creditor instead of the defendant.
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade Information: GATT is a treaty and is really a series of treaties between several countries that are intended to promote free trade over international borders. GATT members meet regularly.
General Damages Information: Different from special damages, such as medical bills or lost wages, General Damages are those damages that the law will presume exist in the sense that they logically follow and are the likely and forseeable result of the harm complained of.
General Partner Information: The General Partner is the partner charged with the main management role in the partnership.
General Power of Appointment Information: A general power of appointment is a power granted by the giver or donor of an estate or real property, to the donee, that allows the donee to dispose of the property (or income from the property) at issue, to anyone at all (in general), including to the…
General Power of Attorney information: A document by which a person designates another with power to manage his or her assets and financial affairs while her or she is alive.
Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) information: A set of accounting standards, rules, conventions, guidelines, etc., that are ordinarily followed by practitioners of the accounting profession at a particular time. These standards will adjust as business and tax procedures vary. A court will rarely accept…
Generally Accepted Auditing Standards (GAAS) information: A set of accounting and auditing standards, rules, conventions, guidelines, etc., that are written, approved and issued by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants that establish the boundaries of professional auditing of business or accounts…
Generic Mark Information: The common names for a particular type or class of goods, generic in nature, and that are in the public domain. Generic terms and marks cannot have trademark status.
Genericide Information: Genericide refers to the loss or cancellation of a trademark that no longer distinguishes the owner’s goods, such as trademark names that eventually become household names.
Gerrymander Information: The drawing of political boundaries without specific regard to geography but paying instead attention to the political affinity of the persons in the district. Consequently, bias more or less dictates that the boundaries are very strange shapes so that…
Gift Taxes Information: Gift tax is a federal tax imposed on the giver of large gifts.