Glossary

Legal glossary

763 definitions · page 3 of 13.

Gold Trading & Precious Metals Markets: Gold Trading and precious metals markets are a very good investment. These markets deal in real assets as an alternative to other markets. Gold trading options include gold futures, gold coin, and gold bullion. Gold trading is also useful as a hedge against…
Government Benefits Information: Any of several economic advantages and privileges given by the Federal or State Governments, such as food stamps, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security disability payments, veterans benefits, unemployment insurance, etc., to which certain persons may be…
Government Grant: A grant is an award, or transfer of money, to a business or to an individual, given without compensation, and for a specific purpose. Federal Government and State Government Grants may be for anything from small business start-up grants to educational grants…
Government Grant Information: An award, or transfer of money from a government to a business or to an individual, given without compensation, for a specific purpose. Federal and State grants may be for anything from business startup grants to educational opportunities and tuition…
Government Immunity Information: Also called sovereign immunity, this tradition (now enacted into law) relieves the government from several kinds of common liability. There are exceptions, of course. For example, if the government entity buys insurance for such losses, which they often do…
Grace Period Information: A time period before which the borrower must resume loan payments before the lender can sue. This term also refers to that period after nonpayment of an insurance premium that the policy can still be renewed.
Grand Jury Information: A Grand Jury is a panel of citizens gathered by the prosecutor to hear evidence and decide whether charges, or indictments, should be handed up.
Grandfather Clause Information: The practice of exempting existing concerns or situations from the effect or impact of new regulations and statutes. The exempted are said to be "grandfathered in" around the new rule. This is typical in zoning issues.
Grant Deed Information: The name of the deed by which the title of real property is transferred from the Grantor to the Grantee.
Grantee Information: The Grantee is the person that receives a grant of property from a grantor.
Grantor Information: The Grantor is the owner, or person that grants and transfers his or her title to real property to the Grantee.
Gravamen Information: The gravamen is the central point, or central issue having the greatest weight. The gravamen is the material part of a greivance.
Greenmail Information: Greenmail is a tactic used by a securities buyer in which they buy enough stock in a company to threaten a hostile takeover and then agree to sell the stock back to the company at a higher price.
Grievance Information: A grievance generally is the formal complaint or charge brought by labor in the labor/management dispute arena.
Gross Estate Information: A concept important in tax and estate planning, the Gross Estate is the total value or assets of an estate, before the deduction of estate and gift taxes.
Guaranteed Reservation Information: A guarantee usually made by giving a credit card number, commonly for hotels or rental cars, in exchange for the guarantee the item will be reserved. The hotel or rental car agency can then charge the credit card a certain agreed upon fee, as liquidated…
Guarantor Information: The guarantor is the one who gives or makes a guarantee to another.
Guaranty Information: A guaranty is simply a promise of some quality or performance.
Guardian ad litem Information: Ad litem means "for the purpose of the litigation." A guardian ad litem is a person, almost always an attorney, appointed by the court, to serve as an officer of the court, and to prosecute and defend an infant or incompetent person who is involved is civil…
Guardian Information: The guardian is the person appointed by the court to take charge and manage, or oversee the welfare, of another person.
Guardianship Hearing information: The court procedure wherein a person is appointed by the court to take charge and manage, or oversee the welfare, of another person, known as the ward.
Guilty Information: Simply put, this is responsibility for the offense. Guilty is having committed a crime or tort.
Guilty Plea Information: A Guilty Plea is the formal admission, made in open court by the defendant, that he is guilty to the offense charged. So long as the admission is voluntary and intelligent, the plea will be accepted. Guilty Pleas are very common in plea bargaining, where the…
H.A. information: An abbreviation for "this year" or hoc anno.
Habeas Corpus ad Subjiciendum information: The name of the writ issued by a court addressed to the officer having custody of a prisoner for the purpose of bringing the prisoner to a court to test whether he is restrained of his liberty by due process.
Habeas Corpus information: A prisoner may bring his case to a court on a writ of habeas corpus in order to test whether he is restrained of his liberty by due process.
Habendum Clause information: In real estate, or real property transfer documents, such as a deed, the habendum clause is that portion of the deed that defines the type or extent of the property interest being granted. Most habendum clauses typically begin with the phrase "to have and to…
Habit information: A known propensity to behave the same way to the same stimulus. Customary conduct. Habit may be the subject of admissible evidence.
Habitability information: This refers to the condition or livability of a dwelling, especially with respect to health and safety to the tenants.
Hague Convention information: In international law, there are a collection of international agreements on various broad issues referred to as the Hague Convention. These treaties are made by several countries for the purpose of standardizing some legal procedures between nations. There…
Halfway House information: A house for prisoners or ill persons that serves as a transition residence between prison/hospital and independence. This is a means to facilitate persons moving from highly regimented living to more normal life.
Harassment information: This is defined as words, conduct, or actions directed at a specific person that annoys, alarms, or causes emotional distress, for no legitimate purpose. Harassment is actionable as a civil wrong.
Hardship Drivers License information: This refers to the restoration of a lost driving privilege given to relieve a hardship. In this way, a person disqualified from driving because of being caught too many times speeding may receive a limited hardship license to drive back and forth to work or…
Hardship information: Difficulty as in suffering and adversity. Up against it. In zoning matters, a property in a restricted zone may be allowed to operate at variance with the zone because of a severe hardship.
Harm information: Damages, or the loss and detriment in fact to a person as a result of any cause.
Hazard information: A risk or peril. A danger hovering about a relation which may develop into an actual harm.
Head of Household information: This is a preferential tax filing status under the internal revenue code, most commonly, and refers to the individual that is actually the one who supports others present. The support must be by virtue of a moral or legal obligation and not simply support…
Headnote information: A brief summary that the publisher of casebooks will often insert at the head, or beginning, of the published opinion, that outlines an issue found within. The publisher will offer an index of all headnote topics that is a very valued aid when doing legal…
Health Maintenance Organization HMO: An HMO is a means of providing healthcare to persons enrolled in the health insurance program or plan sponsoring the HMO. The efforts of participating healthcare providers and physicians are joined. The providers agree to furnish care to the enrolled persons…
Healthcare Directive information: A written statement of a person directing that certain medical procedures are authorized to be withheld or accepted upon some future event, including the unavailability or incompetence of the writer.
Healthcare Proxy information: A person designated by another to make certain medical decisions upon some future event, including the unavailability or incompetence of the writer.
Hearing information: A court proceeding in which both parties are heard and presided over by a judge.
Hearsay information: An out of court statement of a non party, other than the one testifying as to the statement, sought to be admitted into evidence, as proof of the matter asserted in the out of court statement. Hearsay is ordinarily not admissible evidence, but there are at…
Heat of Passion information: A term common in criminal law, as a mitigating factor in murder charges, that to some extent excuses or condones, by reducing the grade of the charge, where the violence was the product of sudden and uncontrollable anger cause by reasonable provocation.
Heir Apparent information: An heir whose interest in taking cannot be extinguished, so long as he or she outlives.
Heirs information: Those who inherit real property or personal property.
Help Desk Software Information: Help Desk software is the common name for several internet based computer programs designed to assist a company in the management of a wide and varied customer base or a large inventory. The help desk is essential in large concerns and is generally managed…
High Seas information: The portion of the sea that is beyond the border of any country.
HIPPA, Records Confidentiality: In 1996, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, known as the HIPPA law, was passed in order to address several concerns then existing in the medical field. The HIPPA act is intended to ensure continuity of healthcare insurance coverage for…
HIPPARecords Confidentiality: In 1996, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, known as the HIPPA law, was passed in order to address several concerns then existing in the medical field. The HIPPA act is intended to ensure continuity of healthcare insurance coverage for…
Hold Harmless information: To indemnify another from responsibility for damage or other liability which exists or which may arise in the future.
Hold information: In real property usage, this means to possess lawfully. The term also refers to the ruling, or holding, that the court makes.
Holder For Value information: The name of the person that has given value in exchange for the possession, legally, of a negotiable instrument and who is therefore entitled to receive payment thereon. The rights are defined by the UCC. "Giving value" may include giving a security interest.
Holder In Due Course information: The name of the person that has given value, in good faith, in exchange for the possession, legally, of a negotiable instrument, otherwise complete and regular on its face, and who is therefore entitled to receive payment thereon. You cannot be a Holder In…
Holder information: The name of the person that has possession, legally, of a negotiable instrument and who is therefore entitled to receive payment thereon.
Holding information: The kernel of truth the court concludes in a legal opinion.
Holdover Tenant information: A tenant that retains possession of the leased premises after the lease has expired or been terminated.
Holographic Will information: An un-witnessed, handwritten will. Some states do not recognize such documents as wills at all.
Home Health Care: Home Health Care is a broadly used medical service meant to lower health care costs for both long and short term patient rehabilitation. An employee from the home health care agency will come to the patient's home to provide the necessary medical follow-up…
Homeowners' Association information: A body created to maintain common areas and enforce private deed restrictions. Most condominium and town home developments and some newer single-family subdivisions have homeowners' associations, which are usually created when the development is built and…