Glossary Terms J - N

Joint and Several Liability: Refers to a plaintiff's ability to sue one or more defendants separately or all together at his or her option. Permits a group of defendants to be held both individually and collectively liable for all damages suffered by the plaintiff. The plaintiff can recover the entire amount of damages from one defendant, even if all of the defendants are liable.
Joint Tenancy: A form of legal co-ownership of property (also known as survivorship). At the death of one co-owner, the surviving co-owner becomes sole owner of the property. Tenancy by the entirety is a special form of joint tenancy between a husband and wife.

Judge: Judicial officer. They conduct hearings and trials.

Judgment: Official decision of a court resolving the issues in a legal action and stating the rights and obligations of the parties. See also decree, order.

Judgment Notwithstanding the Verdict (n.o.v.): An order by the trial judge entering a judgment in a manner contradictory to the jury’s verdict. This is granted only when the verdict is unreasonable and unsupportable.

Judicial: Pertaining to a judge.

Judicial Notice: The procedure by which a judge recognizes the existence of the truth of a certain fact having bearing on the case without the production of evidence because such fact is established by common notoriety. For example, if the accident happened on Thanksgiving, the judge can take judicial notice that the accident happened on a Thursday.

Judicial Review: The authority of a court to review the official actions of other branches of government. Also, the authority to declare unconstitutional the actions of other branches.

Jurisdiction: The legal right by which judges exercise their authority.

Jurisprudence: The study of law and the structure of the legal system.

Jury: Persons selected according to law and sworn to inquire into and declare a verdict on matters of fact. A petit jury is an ordinary or trial jury, composed of six to 12 persons, which hears either civil or criminal cases.

Jury Commissioner: The court officer responsible for choosing the panel of persons to serve as potential jurors for a particular court term.

Justiciable: Issues and claims capable of being properly examined in court.

Lapsed Gift: A gift made in a will to a person who has died prior to the will-makers death.

Larceny: Obtaining property by fraud or deceit.

Law: The combination of those rules and principles of conduct promulgated by legislative authority, derived from court decisions and established by local custom.

Law Clerks: Persons trained in the law who assist judges in researching legal opinions.

Lawsuit or Suit: Generally, a court action brought by one person, the plaintiff, against another, the defendant , seeking compensation for some injury or enforcement of a right.

Leading Case: Case regarded as having determined the law on a particular point, thus becoming a guide for later decisions.

Leading Question: A question that suggests the answer desired of the witness. A party generally may not ask one's own witness leading questions. Leading questions may be asked only of hostile witnesses and on cross-examination.

Legal Aid: Professional legal services available usually to persons or organizations unable to afford such services.

Legal Cause: Substantial factor in bringing about the harm. See also proximate cause.

Legal Fiction: Assumption of a fact that may or may not be true made by a judge to decide a legal question.

Leniency: Recommendation for a sentence less than the maximum allowed.

Letters of Administration: Legal document issued by a court that shows an administrator's legal right to take control of assets in the deceased person's name.

Letters Testamentary: Legal document issued by a court that shows an executor's legal right to take control of assets in the deceased person's name.

Liability: An obligation that one is bound in law to perform; usually involves the payment of money damages.

Liable: Legally responsible.

Libel: Published words or pictures that falsely and maliciously defame a person. Libel is published defamation; slander is spoken.

Liberal construction: Judicial interpretation of the law whereby the judge expands the literal meaning of the statute to meet cases that are clearly within the spirit or reason of the law. Compare with strict construction whereby the judge adheres to the literal meaning of the words.

Licensee: In civil law, a person who enters land with consent, but nothing more.

Lien: A legal claim against another person's property as security for a debt. A lien does not convey ownership of the property, but gives the lien holder a right to have his or her debt satisfied out of the proceeds of the property if the debt is not otherwise paid.

Limine: A motion requesting that the court not allow certain evidence that might prejudice the jury.

Limited Jurisdiction: Refers to courts that are limited in the types of criminal and civil cases they may hear. For example, traffic violations generally are heard by limited jurisdiction courts.

Litigant: A party to a lawsuit. Litigation refers to a case, controversy, or lawsuit.

Living Trust: A trust set up and in effect during the lifetime of the grantor. Also called inter vivos trust.

Loss of consortuium: Damages awarded to a family member (usually a spouse) for loss of companionship.
 Magistrate: Judicial officer exercising some of the functions of a judge. It also refers in a general way to a judge.

Malfeasance: Commission of a wrongful act; evil doing; wrongful conduct.

Malicious Prosecution: An action instituted with intention of injuring the defendant and without probable cause, and which terminates in favor of the person prosecuted.

Mandamus: A writ issued by a court ordering a public official to perform an act.

Manslaughter: The unlawful killing of another without intent to kill; either voluntary (upon a sudden impulse); or involuntary (during the commission of an unlawful act not ordinarily expected to result in great bodily harm). See also murder.

Material Fact: Generally, a fact essential to a case or a defense without which said case or defense could not be supported.

Mediation: A form of alternative dispute resolution in which the parties bring their dispute to a neutral third party, who helps them agree on a settlement.

Medical Malpractice: Broadly, a claim brought against a health-care professional based on professional negligence wherein the health-care professional violates the applicable standard of care and an injury results.

Member: In relation to health care, a member is a person who belongs to a health care plan, like an HMO

Memorialized: In writing.

Mens Rea: The "guilty mind" necessary to establish criminal responsibility.

Mental Anguish: Mental suffering. In some cases, damages may be awarded for mental anguish even though no physical injury is present.

Miranda Warning: Requirement that police tell a suspect in their custody of his or her constitutional rights before they question him or her. So named as a result of the Miranda v. Arizona ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Misdemeanor: Crimes less serious than felonies. In Alabama , the punishments associated with misdemeanors vary according to degree. A Class A misdemeanor may be sentenced to a term of imprisonment of not more than one year. A Class B misdemeanor may be sentenced to a term of imprisonment of not more than six months. A Class C misdemeanor may be sentenced to a term of imprisonment of not more than three months.

Misfeasance: Improper performance of a lawful act.

Mistrial: An invalid trial, caused by fundamental error. When a mistrial is declared, the trial must start again from the selection of the jury.

Mitigating Circumstances: Those which do not constitute a justification or excuse for an offense but which may be considered as reasons for reducing the degree of blame.

Mitigation of Damages or Doctrine of Avoidable Consequences: Imposes a duty on victims of a tort to take reasonable steps to minimize their damages after an injury has been inflicted.

Mittimus: The name of an order in writing, issuing from a court and directing the sheriff or other officer to convey a person to a prison, asylum, or reformatory, and directing the jailer or other appropriate official to receive and safely keep the person until his or her fate shall be determined by due course of law.

Moot: A moot case or a moot point is one not subject to a judicial determination because it involves an abstract question or a pretended controversy that has not yet actually arisen or has already passed. Mootness usually refers to a court's refusal to consider a case because the issue involved has been resolved prior to the court's decision, leaving nothing that would be affected by the court's decision.

Motion: An application made to a judge for the purpose of obtaining an order directing some act to be done in favor of the party presenting the application.

Moving Party: The party presenting the motion. Compare with non-moving party.

Murder: The unlawful killing of a human being with deliberate intent to kill. Murder in the first degree is characterized by premeditation; murder in the second degree is characterized by a sudden and instantaneous intent to kill or to cause injury without caring whether the injury kills or not. (See also manslaughter.)

Negligence: In its broadest sense, carelessness. More precisely, conduct which falls below the standard of care established by law for the protection of others against unreasonable risks of harm. In order to prevail in a negligence action, the plaintiff must prove, by a preponderance of the evidence, the following four elements: (1) that the defendant owed the plaintiff a duty of care; (2) that the defendant breached that duty; (3) that the defendant's breach of his or her duty of care caused the plaintiff's injury; (4) that the plaintiff suffered injury.

Negligence per se: Conduct, either by act or omission, that may be declared and treated as negligence without argument or proof of negligence, usually because the conduct violates a statute. A finding of negligence per se satisfies the plaintiff's burden of proof that the defendant's conduct was negligent. However, the burden remains on the plaintiff to establish that his injuries were proximately caused by the statutory violation.

Next Friend: One acting without formal appointment as guardian for the benefit of an infant, a person of unsound mind not judicially declared incompetent, or other person under some disability.

Nisi Decree: Interim decree or order that will eventually become final unless something changes or an event takes place.

Nonfeasance: Failure to perform some act which should have been performed.

No Bill: This phrase, endorsed by a grand jury on the written indictment submitted to it for its approval, means that the evidence was found insufficient to indict.

No-Contest Clause: Language in a will that provides that a person who makes a legal challenge to the will's validity will be disinherited.

No-Fault Proceedings: A civil case in which parties may resolve their dispute without a formal finding of error or fault.

Non-Jury Trial or Bench Trial: Trial before a judge and without a jury. In a bench trial, the judge decides questions of law and questions of fact.

Non-Moving Party: The party to a lawsuit that is not presenting a motion to the court. A non-moving party may or may not contest or oppose the motion. Compare with moving party.

Nolle Prosequi: Decision by a prosecutor not to go forward with charging a crime. It translates "I do not choose to prosecute." Also loosely called nolle pros.

Nolo Contendere: A plea of no contest. In many jurisdictions, it is an expression that the matter will not be contested, but without an admission of guilt. In other jurisdictions, it is an admission of the charges and is equivalent to a guilty plea.

Notice: Formal notification to the party that has been sued in a civil case of the fact that the lawsuit has been filed. Also, any form of notification of a legal proceeding.

Nuisance: An unreasonable or unlawful use of one’s real estate that results in injures to another or interferes with another person’s use of his real property.

Nunc Pro Tunc: A legal phrase applied to acts which are allowed after the time when they should be done, with a retroactive effect.

Nuncupative Will: An oral (unwritten) will.

top of page Return to Glossary