Glossary

Legal glossary

763 definitions · page 9 of 13.

Legal Terms - Reformation: Reformation information: In contract law, a court or judge may reform or rewrite a contract to express the true intent of the parties in some circumstances, especially where enforcement of the original language written in the contract would render an…
Legal Terms - Refugee: Refugee information: In immigration law, a person that has been forced out or has fled his or her country or origin because of a fear of persecution there. International law will recognize the statue of refugees differently than those who leave their country…
Legal Terms - Rehabilitation Centers: Rehabilitation Centers Information: Rehabilitation Treatment Centers refer to any of several kinds, or levels, of counseling available for individuals that have problems with drug and alcohol abuse. Some rehabilitation centers are residential, offering long…
Legal Terms - Release: Release information: The relinquishment of a right or claim against a person. When civil claims and cases are settled, the defendant (or paying party) generally wants a signed release from the plaintiff forever barring the claim from being reasserted against…
Legal Terms - Religion Clause: Religion Clause information: From the U.S. Constitution: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."
Legal Terms - Remainder Interest: Remainder Interest information: In real estate practice, a remainder interest is that portion of title to a piece of real property that will pass to the holder of the remainder (the beneficiary) after a future event occurs.
Legal Terms - Remittance: Remittance information: Payment from one to another. The act of paying or sending (remitting) a money payment.
Legal Terms - Removal: Removal information: Where there is diversity of citizenship between the parties (they come from different states) some cases filed in State courts can be removed by the defendant to Federal Courts.
Legal Terms - Rent Control: Rent Control information: A law meant to control and prevent exorbitantly high rents and to assist low and fixed-income tenants in obtaining housing in areas they otherwise could not afford.
Legal Terms - Renunciation: Renunciation information: Abandonment of a right by either tacit admission or expressly. Complete abandonment is required, so transfers of the right to another is really not a renunciation. In the law of estates and wills, a renunciation is the waiving of a…
Legal Terms - Replevin: Replevin information: Legal action whereby personal property is recovered from the wrongful possession of another. This is an action in equity.
Legal Terms - Repudiation: Repudiation information: In contract law, a party repudiates a contract by signaling to the other party, by words or actions, that the party has no intention to perform the contract in the future. This is a threat to breach a contract.
Legal Terms - Res Ipsa Loquitur: Res Ipsa Loquitur information: In negligence law, it means "the thing speaks for itself" and refers to situations where the burden of proof shifts to defendant to prove the action taken was not done negligently. This is because the particular facts that gave…
Legal Terms - Residuary Beneficiary: Residuary Beneficiary information: The person that receives the residue (that which was undistributed under the terms of a will) of an estate after it has been distributed to the rightful heirs.
Legal Terms - Residuary Clause: Residuary Clause information: In the law of wills and estates, a residuary clause appears in a will and is intended to dispose of any estate property that remains after all other bequests and devises have been made. The residue of the estate is distributed…
Legal Terms - Residue: Residue information: That which was undistributed under the terms of a will, or which is left over, after the estate has been distributed.
Legal Terms - Respondeat Superior: Respondeat Superior information: A doctrine in negligence law that holds an employer liable for the torts committed by its employees actions where those actions or omissions are committed during the scope and course of the employment, subject to the employer…
Legal Terms - Respondent: Respondent information: Other name for defendant in some civil actions, such as a dissolution action. Also, one that responds to an appeal.
Legal Terms - Restraining Order: Restraining Order information: A court order made to protect an adult from physical pain or injury, or from being threatened with pain or injury. These orders are also known as orders of protection and may be issued ex parte, or without a hearing. A hearing…
Legal Terms - Retainer: Retainer information: A sum on money that hires an attorney, or reserves that attorney for future work for a client. Retainers are subject to negotiation and may be monthly.
Legal Terms - Reversion: Reversion information: This is a property or real estate law term. A reversion is a future interest in property that will come into effect, or vest, by operation of law, where the grantor does not deed away the entire interest in the property. For example, a…
Legal Terms - Revocation: Revocation information: In contract law this is the withdrawal of an offer. Revocation is any act that annuls or cancels and act or power.
Legal Terms - Right to Counsel: Right to Counsel information: All defendants in criminal cases have a right to engage counsel to represent them. In cases of those who cannot afford to retain counsel, the state will provide and pay for counsel.
Legal Terms - Right to Work Law: Right to Work Law information: A state law that prohibits agreements between labor and management that requires employees to be members of a union as a condition for employment and future employment. States that have such laws are known as Right to Work…
Legal Terms - Rollover: Rollover information: A means of moving an individual's qualified 401K plan balance to an IRA such the character of the account stays intact, for tax purposes. Rollovers avoid current income tax.
Legal Terms - Rollover Claims: Rollover Claims Information: Liability claims against motor vehicle manufacturers can be based on a tendency for a particular model of motor vehicle to rollover under normal driving conditions or when making reasonable driving responses to foreseeable…
Legal Terms - Rule Against Perpetuities: Rule Against Perpetuities information: An old English rule that required an interest in real property must vest, if at all, within 21 years, plus a gestation period, of lives in being at the time of the creation of the interest. The rule still hold today…
Legal Terms - Ruling: Ruling information: Another word for order or judgment. Simply put, it is a court's conclusion and direction to the parties, who are bound.
Legal Terms - S-Corporation: S-Corporation Information: An S-Corporation is a corporation that has elected and qualified for a special tax status with the Internal Revenue Service. The main advantage associated with the S-Corporation is that income to the S-Corporation is not taxed to…
Legal Terms - Sabotage: Sabotage information: Intentional destruction of a means of industrial production, or the intentional destruction of national defense assets at a time of war. The word originates in the industrial revolution where workers in Holland would throw their wooden…
Legal Terms - Safe Deposit Box: Safe Deposit Box information: A secure box that can be rented from a bank for storage of valuables. They usually require two keys, one that is kept at the bank, and one that the box owner carries.
Legal Terms - Safe Harbor: Safe Harbor information: A statute that eliminates liability, or protects from liability, some actor. These are common in securities regulation where individuals make forecasts. So long as the forecast is made in good faith, no liability will lie for a wrong…
Legal Terms - Salvage Value: Salvage Value information: The value of an asset after it usefulness has been used up. For example, a totally wrecked motor vehicle has a value as junk that someone will pay, even though it cannot be driven anymore.
Legal Terms - Satisfaction: Satisfaction information: A thing given, not necessarily the specific performance promised, that is intended to extinguish an obligation. This is the fulfillment of an obligation, such that the obligation is discharged.
Legal Terms - Savings Account: Savings Account Information: A savings account is a deposit account kept at a commercial bank, savings bank, or a savings and loan association. The bank will pay interest on the amount deposited. More and more banks and their customers are turning to…
Legal Terms - Scope of Authority: Scope of Authority information: In agency questions, this refers to the actual or perceived power given to an agent by his principal in carrying out the principal's business. This is similar to the scope of employment.
Legal Terms - Scope of Employment: Scope of Employment information: In respondeat superior questions, this refers to the actual or perceived power given to an employee by his employer in carrying out the employer's business. This is similar to the scope of authority in agency law.
Legal Terms - Search Warrant: Search Warrant information: A court order from a judge that allows the police to enter and search the property of another.
Legal Terms - Second Amendment: Second Amendment information: Part of the original Bill of Rights, this amendment guarantees the right to keep and bear arms, in light of the need for a well regulated malitia.
Legal Terms - Second Degree Murder: Second Degree Murder information: Most jurisdictions define Second Degree Murder as knowingly causing the death of a person by purposely causing serious physical injury, such that the person dies from the injury.
Legal Terms - Secured Debt: Secured Debt information: A debt that is collateralized, or backed by a pledge of property.
Legal Terms - Secured Transaction: Secured Transaction information: A buy-sell transaction that is governed by Title 9 of the UCC and involves the giving of collateral for the loan (or delivery) in the form of property or an interest in property in order to guarantee payment.
Legal Terms - Security Deposit: Security Deposit information: An amount agreed to be paid to the landlord to cover potential losses with the rented space, such as non-payment of rent, damages, and waste.
Legal Terms - Seduction: Seduction information: An offense now abolished in many states wherein a man wrongfully entices a woman of chaste character to have intercourse.
Legal Terms - Seizure: Seizure information: The taking of property against the will of the owner or possessor. It also applies to the taking of a person into custody, against his or her will.
Legal Terms - Self Defense: Self Defense information: Justified defense of your person and property. The force used in defense must be reasonable and somewhat proportional to the force being resisted.
Legal Terms - Self Incrimination: Self Incrimination information: An admission by a criminal defendant that tends to prove guilt. The defendant cannot be compelled to testify in the criminal case. There is a privilege against self incrimination.
Legal Terms - Self-Employment Tax: Self-Employment Tax Information: This is simply the legal term for the tax paid by self-employed persons into the Social Security System. Without the self-employed contributing to the fund, there would be no individual account for that person upon…
Legal Terms - Sentence: Sentence information: The judgment announced by a court at the close of a criminal case, after a conviction, whereby the defendant learns what punishment is in store.
Legal Terms - Service Mark: Service Mark information: Any kind of word, name, symbol, device, or any combination of those, used or intended to be used, in commerce or industry, to identify and distinguish the services of one provider from services provided by others, and to indicate…
Legal Terms - Setback: Setback information: The amount of space required by zoning regulations that must exist between a lot line and the edge of a building. In other words, how far back from the street or the neighbor your building needs to be.
Legal Terms - Setoff: Setoff information: This is in the nature of a counterclaim, in debtor cases, where defendant admits the debt but claims the amount should be reduced by the amount of the setoff, or prior payment for which credit is due.
Legal Terms - Settlement: Settlement information: To end a lawsuit or claim by mutual agreement is called a settlement. This is the compromise conclusion of the dispute.
Legal Terms - Settlor: Settlor information: The identity of the person or entity that set up or took the necessary steps to found a trust.
Legal Terms - Severance Pay: Severance Pay information: Money paid to a terminated employee, over and above any unpaid wage.
Legal Terms - Shareholder: Shareholder information: A person that owns at least one share of stock in a corporation is an owner and shareholder to the extent of the interest.
Legal Terms - Short Sell: Short Sell information: Selling borrowed shares of stock in anticipation that the share price will fall in the near future. Shares are borrowed from the broker. Shares are repurchased and returned to the broker when the stock price falls and they are bought…
Legal Terms - Short Term Loan: Short Term Loan Information: A short term loan gets it name from the fact that it is financing meant to span a financial gap of short duration, usually less than one year. Interest rates may be higher on short term loans and less security may also be…
Legal Terms - Shrink-Wrap License: Shrink-Wrap License information: A license, or agreement, printed on the wrapping of some computer software products, wherein it is stated that by unwrapping the package the party agrees and is thereafter bound by the printed licensing terms on the wrapping…
Legal Terms - Sight Draft: Sight Draft information: A check that is payable upon presentment to the bank.