Terms beginning with P
2,127 headwords
- P.AA professional association: a group of professionals organized to practice together, though not necessarily as a corp…
- P.CA professional corporation: a company formed by members of a profession, such as doctors or lawyers, to practice toge…
- P.DA public defender: a lawyer, or an office of lawyers, appointed at public expense to represent criminal defendants wh…
- P.IPersonal injury; also private investigator.
- P.LPublic Law: the designation given to a statute enacted by Congress, followed by the number of the Congress and of the…
- P.OPost office.
- P.O.DPay on delivery; also payable on death.
- paageA toll paid for the right of passage through a place.
- PACA political-action committee: a group formed to raise and spend money to elect or defeat candidates.
- Pac-Man defenseAn aggressive defense in which the target of a takeover turns on the bidder, making its own cash tender offer for the…
- PACERA computer system through which subscribers can get information online from the federal courts, including the docket…
- Pacific ReporterA set of law reports in West's National Reporter System containing the published decisions of the courts of Alaska, A…
- pacificationIn international law, the making of peace between two warring nations.
- pacificistA person opposed to war, who believes disputes should be settled by peaceful means.
- pacifismThe belief that disputes between nations should be settled peacefully rather than by war.
- pacifistA person opposed to war, who believes disputes should be settled by peaceful means.
- packTo choose or arrange a tribunal or jury so as to produce a wanted result.
- package mortgageA mortgage covering both land and the incidental personal property on it, such as a refrigerator or stove.
- packingA gerrymandering technique in which the dominant group cuts minority representation by crowding the minority into as…
- packing a juryContriving to have a jury made up of people already leaning one way.
- pactAn agreement between two or more parties, above all a treaty between nations.
- pacta sunt servandaAgreements are to be kept: the rule that undertakings, above all those in treaties, must be observed.
- pactioThe bargaining that leads to an agreement, and the agreement itself.
- pactionThe bargaining that leads to an agreement, and the agreement itself. In international law, an agreement between two n…
- pactionalRelating to or creating an agreement.
- pactumIn Roman and civil law, an agreement or pact.
- pactum constitutae pecuniaeAn agreement by which someone undertakes to pay an existing debt, their own or another's, on a stated date.
- padInformally, of a lawyer or paralegal, to overstate the number of billable hours worked.
- padded-payroll ruleIn commercial law, the rule that where the drawer or maker issues an instrument to a payee they do not really mean to…
- paddingOverstating the hours or expenses charged to a client.
- paid-in capitalThe money paid to a company for its shares.
- paid-in fundMoney that the founders or members of a mutual insurance company pay in as a guarantee fund, held in place of share c…
- paid-in surplusThe surplus arising from selling, exchanging, or issuing capital stock above its par value.
- paid-up insuranceInsurance that stays in force although no further premiums are due.
- paid-up policyA policy that stays in force after the premiums stop being payable.
- paid-up stockStock on which the full price has been paid, so that the holder owes nothing further to the company.
- pain and sufferingPhysical discomfort or emotional distress, recoverable as an element of damages in tort.
- pain of, onUnder penalty of: followed by the punishment for failing to obey a command or condition.
- pains and penalties, bill ofA legislative act much like a bill of attainder but imposing a punishment short of death. The Constitution's ban on b…
- pairing-offIn legislative practice, an agreement between two members on opposite sides of an issue that neither will vote on it,…
- Palace CourtA court with jurisdiction over personal actions arising within twelve miles of Whitehall, created by James I because…
- palimonyAn allowance a court orders one member of an unmarried couple to pay the other after they stop living together.
- pallio cooperireFormerly, the marriage of a couple who already had a child together. A veil was spread over the bride and extended to…
- palming offFalsely presenting one's own product as someone else's in order to deceive buyers. It is a tort under the law of unfa…
- Palsgraf ruleIn tort law, the rule that negligent conduct causing injury gives rise to liability only where the actor could reason…
- pandectA complete code of law with commentary; also the fifty books making up Justinian's Digest, one of the four parts of t…
- panderA person who procures prostitutes or customers for them.
- panderingRecruiting a prostitute, finding them a place to work, or soliciting customers for them. The word also covers selling…
- panelA list of people summoned as potential jurors, or the group chosen for jury duty; also a set of judges drawn from a f…
- panel-shoppingChoosing the group of judges most likely to favor one's side to hear an appeal.
- panelationThe empaneling of a jury.
- papal lawThe body of Roman church law, first compiled between the 12th and 14th centuries and since codified, most recently in…
- paperAny written or printed document; also a negotiable instrument evidencing a debt, or commercial instruments taken as a…
- paper lossA loss that exists only on paper, because the asset has fallen in value but has not been sold.
- paper moneyPaper documents that pass as currency: bills a government draws on its own credit.
- paper patentA patent for an invention that has never been put to commercial use, so that it exists only on paper.
- paper profitA gain that exists only on paper, because the asset has risen in value but has not been sold.
- paper standardA monetary system resting entirely on paper, whose currency cannot be exchanged for gold or any other precious metal.
- paper streetA street that appears on plats and subdivision maps and other filed documents but has never been built or opened to t…
- paper titleWritten evidence of a person's ownership of property, such as a deed.
- Papian lawA Roman statute of the early empire encouraging marriage and childbearing by penalizing the unmarried and childless i…
- parThe value shown on the face of an instrument or security: the dollar figure the charter assigns to a share, or the pr…
- par itemAn item a drawee bank will remit to another bank without deducting a charge.
- par of exchangeThe equivalence between a sum in one country's currency and the corresponding sum in another's, at which the two exch…
- par valueThe value shown on the face of an instrument or security: the dollar figure the charter assigns to a share, or the pr…
- par-value stockStock issued at a fixed value on its face, found by dividing the total capital stock by the number of shares. That fi…
- parageEquality of rank, blood, or dignity, above all the equal tenure of land among nobles who inherit from a common ancestor.
- parajudgeA federal judicial officer who handles civil and criminal pretrial matters and may try civil cases and criminal misde…
- paralegalA person who helps a lawyer with work connected to the practice of law without being a licensed attorney.
- paralegalizeInformally, to proofread, check citations, and otherwise verify the details of a legal document.
- parallel citationA second reference to a case that has been printed in more than one set of reports, given alongside the first so that…
- parallel importsGoods carrying valid trademarks that are made abroad and imported to compete with domestic goods bearing the same mar…
- paramount titleIn older usage, the title from which the present title derives; also a title superior to another claim on the same pr…
- paraphFormerly, a flourish after a signature, meant to guard against forgery. In civil law, the signature itself, above all…
- paraphernaA wife's property that formed no part of her dowry.
- paraphernal propertyIn civil law, property that forms no part of a woman's dowry.
- paraphernaliaThe personal belongings a wife was allowed to keep, beyond her dowry, on her husband's death.
- Paraphrase of TheophilusA Greek paraphrase of Justinian's Institutes written in the sixth century by Theophilus, a law professor at Constanti…
- paratitlaIn Roman and civil law, notes prefixed to the titles of a code, summarizing what each contains.
- paravailOf a tenant, holding from another tenant rather than directly from the lord: the lowest tenant in the chain.
- parcelA small package; also a tract of land.
- parcenaryThe estate that arises where two or more people inherit jointly from one ancestor, sharing the title and the right of…
- parcenerA person to whom an estate descends jointly with others, all holding it as one entire estate.
- parco fractoOf pound breach: the wrongful taking of animals or goods out of a pound where they had been lawfully impounded.
- pardonThe official cancelling of the punishment or other legal consequences of a crime, usually granted by the head of the…
- pardon attorneyA Justice Department lawyer who reviews applications for federal pardons and passes the promising ones on for the Pre…
- parens binubusIn Roman law, a parent who has married again.
- parentA person's lawful father or mother. The word ordinarily reaches beyond conception and birth, covering a natural paren…
- parent companyA company holding a controlling interest in another, usually by owning more than half its voting stock.
- parent corporationA corporation holding a controlling interest in another, usually by owning more than half its voting shares.
- parent-child immunityThe rule that parents are not liable for damage caused by the ordinary negligence of their minor child.
- parentageThe state of being a parent; also kinship in the direct ascending line.
- parentage actionA court proceeding to decide whether a person is a child's father, usually brought by the mother in order to obtain c…
- parental consortiumThe society, affection, and companionship a parent gives a child.
- parental immunityThe rule that an unemancipated child cannot sue a parent for damages caused by the parent's negligence. Most states k…
- parental kidnappingThe taking of a child by one parent in breach of the other parent's custody or visitation rights.
- Parental Kidnapping Prevention ActA federal law of 1980 penalizing child abduction by a parent without custody and requiring each state to recognize an…
- parental rightsA parent's rights over their child, including the right to bring the child up, to discipline them, and to control the…
- parental-liability lawA statute making parents pay damages for wrongs, above all deliberate ones, committed by their minor children. Every…
- parental-preference doctrineThe principle that a fit parent willing and able to care for a child should be given custody in preference to someone…
- parental-responsibility statuteA law imposing criminal penalties, such as fines, on parents whose minor children commit offenses because the parents…
- parentelaPeople who can trace their descent from a common ancestor.
- parentelic methodA method of working out which relatives on the mother's or father's side are entitled to inherit, by tracing back to…
- parenticideThe killing of one's own parent; also the person who does it.
- Pareto superiorityA state of affairs in which some exchange can still be made that helps someone and harms nobody. Once no such exchang…
- pari causa, inIn equal fault: describing parties equally to blame, between whom the law will not intervene.
- pari delicto, inIn equal fault: where both parties are equally to blame, so that the court leaves them as it finds them.
- pari materia, inOn the same subject. It is a rule of construction that statutes dealing with the same subject may be read together, s…
- pari passuAt an equal pace: proportionally and without preference among them.
- parimutuel bettingA system of betting in which the stakes on a race are pooled and, after a management fee and taxes, divided among the…
- parishIn Louisiana, a division of government answering to a county elsewhere. In church law, a division of a town or distri…
- parish courtIn Louisiana, the court of a parish, corresponding to a county court elsewhere.
- parium judiciumThe judgment of one's peers: trial by a jury of equals.
- Parker doctrineIn antitrust law, the rule that the antitrust laws do not reach a state's own anticompetitive acts, or acts a state d…
- parkingThe sale of securities under an agreement that the seller will buy them back later at about the same price. It is unl…
- parking-lot ruleThe rule that workers' compensation covers injuries an employee suffers on the employer's premises while arriving at…
- parliamentThe supreme legislature of some nations, above all in the United Kingdom, where it consists of the monarch, the House…
- parliamentary diplomacyThe negotiation and discussion carried on within international organizations according to their own rules of procedure.
- parliamentary divorceA divorce granted by an act of the legislature rather than by a court.
- parliamentary intentWhat the legislature meant to achieve when it passed a statute.
- parliamentary lawThe body of rules and precedents governing how legislative and other deliberative assemblies conduct their business.
- parliamentary privilegeThe immunity protecting members of a legislature from being sued or prosecuted for anything they say or do in the cou…
- parliamentum insanumThe commission of 24 men Henry III and his barons summoned to Oxford in 1258 to carry out reforms and settle their qu…
- parolOral rather than written; also not under seal.
- parol agreementA contract, or a change to one, that is not in writing or is only partly written.
- parol arrestAn arrest ordered by a judge or magistrate from the bench, without any written complaint, and carried out at once, as…
- parol contractA contract, or a change to one, that is not in writing or is only partly in writing; at common law it also meant a co…
- parol demurrerA suspension of proceedings while a party is still a minor.
- parol evidenceEvidence given by word of mouth rather than in writing.
- parol leaseA lease resting on an oral agreement rather than a written one.
- parol trustA trust created by the settlor's spoken words rather than in writing. Trusts of land must generally be in writing und…
- parol-evidence ruleIn contract law, the rule that where the parties meant a writing to be the final expression of their agreement, evide…
- paroleThe release of a prisoner before the full sentence has been served. It is usually granted for good behavior, on condi…
- parole boardThe body that decides whether prisoners may be released before completing their sentences.
- parole revocationThe administrative act of returning a parolee to prison for breaking the conditions of parole, as by committing a new…
- paroleeA prisoner released on parole.
- Parratt-Hudson doctrineThe rule that a random, unauthorized act by a state employee that deprives someone of property does not violate due p…
- parricidalHaving to do with the killing of a parent.
- parricideThe killing of a close relative, above all a parent; also the person who does it.
- parsFormerly, a party to an action.
- pars reaThe party defending an action.
- parsonIn church law, the spiritual head and presiding officer of a church.
- part paymentA buyer's handing over of money or something of value, accepted by the seller, that falls short of the whole sum owed.
- part performanceThe carrying out of some but not all of one's contractual obligations; also a party's performing enough of an oral co…
- part-performance doctrineThe equitable rule by which a party who has performed enough of an oral contract, in reliance on the other side's pro…
- part-sovereign stateA political community that exercises some of the powers of external sovereignty itself while others are held or contr…
- parte inauditaDone without hearing the other side.
- parte non comparenteThe party not having appeared.
- partes finis nihil habueruntFormerly, a plea to set aside a conveyance of land on the ground that the transferor had no sufficient interest in it…
- partial accountA preliminary account of an executor's or administrator's dealings with an estate.
- partial assignmentThe immediate transfer of part, but not all, of what the assignor is entitled to.
- partial averageAverage arising from an accidental partial loss or damage, borne solely by the person who suffered it.
- partial breachA breach of contract less serious than a material breach, which entitles the injured party to damages but does not no…
- partial defenseA defense going to part of the claim only, or aimed at reducing the damages.
- partial dependentIn workers' compensation law, someone who relied in part on a covered employee for support, and who may therefore cla…
- partial disabilityA worker's inability to do all the tasks they could manage before an accident, though they can still do some paid work.
- partial evictionAn eviction, whether actual or constructive, from part only of the tenant's premises.
- partial evidenceEvidence establishing one fact in a series that together make up the point to be proved.
- partial failure of considerationA situation where the contract breaks into separate items of consideration matched to separate parts of the agreement…
- partial guardianA guardian appointed to care for particular affairs of a person, rather than for all of them.
- partial integrationThe state of a written contract that does not set out the parties' whole intent, so that outside evidence may be used…
- partial limitationIn insurance law, a term by which the insurer agrees to pay a total loss once the actual loss exceeds a stated amount.
- partial liquidationA winding up that does not dispose of all the company's assets, above all where some assets are distributed to shareh…
- partial lossA loss of part of the insured property: damage short of a total loss.
- partial pardonA pardon relieving the offender from some but not all of the punishment or consequences of the crime.
- partial releaseA release of part of a creditor's claim against property, as where a lender frees one parcel from a mortgage covering…
- partial summary judgmentA summary judgment confined to particular issues, which disposes of only part of the case.
- partial verdictA verdict finding a criminal defendant not guilty on some charges and guilty on others.
- partial zoningZoning applied to only part of a municipality, leaving the rest unregulated.
- partially disclosed principalA principal whose existence the agent reveals to the third party without naming them. Both the agent and the principa…
- partially integrated contractA written agreement that is final as to the terms it contains but does not set out the parties' whole bargain.
- partiariusA legatee entitled to a share of an inheritance alongside the appointed heirs; also a tenant bound to hand over part…
- particeps criminisAn accomplice or accessory: a partner in the crime.
- participating bondA bond entitling the holder to a share of company profits instead of a fixed rate of interest.
- participating insuranceInsurance that lets the policyholder share in the insurer's surplus by receiving dividends. It is issued by mutual co…
- participating policyA policy giving the holder a right to dividends or to rebates on future premiums. Mutual companies issue such policies.
- participating preferred stockPreferred stock whose holder takes the stated dividend and also shares with the common shareholders in any further di…
- participationTaking part in something, such as a partnership; also employees' right to a share of a business's profits.
- participation loanA loan made by two or more lenders together.
- participation mortgageA mortgage letting the lender share in the profits of the venture as well as take the usual interest; also a mortgage…
- participation stockStock that lets the holder share in profits and in surplus.
- participes criminisPartners in a crime: those who take part in committing it.
- particular averageLoss from an accidental partial loss or damage, borne solely by whoever suffered it rather than shared among all the…
- particular average lossIn marine insurance, a loss falling on one particular interest in the venture alone, rather than being shared among a…
- particular customA custom in force only in a defined place, such as a city or county, and a source of law there alone.
- particular damagesDamages said to have been suffered in the particular circumstances of a given wrong. To be awarded, they must be spec…
- particular estateAn estate of limited duration, such as a fee tail, a life estate, or an estate for years.
- particular jurisprudenceThe scholarly study of one particular legal system, concentrating on the assumptions underlying that system alone.
- particular lienA possessory lien entitling the holder to keep particular goods until a debt connected with those very goods has been…
- particular maliceMalice aimed at one particular person.
- particular partnershipA partnership formed for one particular venture or piece of business, which ends when that business is finished.
- particular successorA person who succeeds to rights and duties attached only to the particular property conveyed to them.
- particular tenantA tenant of a limited estate carved out of a fee.
- particular titleTitle to one particular thing, as opposed to succeeding to a whole estate.
- particulars of saleA document describing the features of something offered for sale, such as a house.
- particulars, bill ofA formal, detailed statement of the claims or charges brought, usually filed in answer to a defendant's request for a…
- partitioIn Roman law, division or partition.
- partitio legataA direction by a testator that the heir divide the inheritance and hand a stated share to a named legatee.
- partitionThe dividing up of property held in common, so that each owner takes a separate share instead of an undivided interes…
- partnerA person who takes part with another in a venture with shared benefits and risks; above all, one of two or more peopl…
- partner in commendamA partner who takes a share of the profits but no part in management, and who risks no more than what they put in.
- partner's lienA partner’s right to have the firm’s property applied to its debts, and to have whatever a fellow partner owes the fi…
- partnershipA voluntary association of two or more people who own and carry on a business together for profit. Under the Uniform…
- partnership agreementA contract setting out the partners' rights and duties toward each other, as distinct from their dealings with outsid…
- partnership associationA business form combining features of a limited partnership and a close corporation, recognized by statute in only a…
- partnership at willA partnership any partner may dissolve at any time without incurring liability for doing so.
- partnership by estoppelA partnership the law treats as existing because one or more people held themselves out as partners to a third party…
- partnership certificateA document evidencing who the partners in a firm are, often supplied to banks when the partnership borrows money.
- partnership distributionA partnership's payment of cash or property to a partner out of earnings, as an advance against future earnings, or a…
- partnership for a termA partnership fixed to last for a stated period or until a stated event. Any partner may dissolve it early, but one w…
- partnership in commendamA partnership made up of one or more general partners, who run the business and are personally liable for its debts,…
- partnership insuranceLife insurance on a partner's life, bought so that the surviving partners can buy out the dead partner's share; also…
- partyA person or body taking part in a transaction or, in litigation, one by or against whom a lawsuit is brought.
- party aggrievedA party whose personal, financial, or property rights another's actions, or a court's judgment, have harmed.
- party in interestThe person the substantive law entitles to enforce the right sued on, who generally, though not always, benefits from…
- party of the first partThe party named first in a contract, usually the owner or seller.
- party of the second partThe party named second in a contract, usually the buyer.
- party opponentAn adversary in a legal proceeding.
- party to be chargedThe defendant in an action to enforce a contract that falls within the statute of frauds, whose signature the statute…
- party wallA wall dividing two separately owned properties, which the two owners share as tenants in common.
- party-column ballotA ballot listing candidates in separate columns by political party, regardless of the offices they seek.
- parum cavisse videturHe seems to have taken too little care: words a judge once used in passing sentence of death.
- passTo give an opinion, ruling, or judgment; also to transfer or be transferred, to enact a bill, to approve something as…
- pass offTo falsely present one's own goods as someone else's in order to deceive buyers.
- pass the witnessYou may now question the witness: a lawyer's courtroom announcement ending their own questioning and inviting the oth…
- pass-alongOf a seller's or landlord's costs, chargeable on to the buyer or tenant.
- pass-throughOf a seller's or landlord's costs, chargeable on to the buyer or tenant.
- pass-through securityA security that passes payments from borrowers through to investors. Such securities are usually bundled and sold by…
- pass-through taxationThe taxing of an entity's owners on the entity's income without taxing the entity itself. Partnerships and S corporat…
- passageThe enactment of a legislative measure; also a right or permission to pass over land or water, and the easement givin…
- passbookA depositor's book in which the bank records every transaction on the account.
- passed dividendA dividend that a company with a record of paying regularly fails to pay when it falls due.
- passimHere and there, or throughout the work cited. Modern legal writing prefers a general "see generally," though the word…
- passing offFalsely presenting one's own product as someone else's in order to deceive buyers. It is a tort under the law of unfa…
- passiveNot involving active participation, above all of a business in which the investor has no direct control over what pro…
- passive activityIn tax law, a business activity the taxpayer does not materially take part in, and so has no direct control over the…
- passive bondA bond that carries no interest.
- passive breach of contractA simple failure to do what a contract requires. Louisiana law contrasts it with active breach, which is careless per…
- passive concealmentKeeping silent when one has a duty to speak.
- passive debtA debt on which, by agreement between debtor and creditor, no interest is charged.
- passive dutyA duty to abstain from doing something.
- passive euthanasiaThe allowing of a terminally ill person to die by withholding or withdrawing life-sustaining treatment such as a resp…
- passive incomeIncome from a business the earner takes no direct part in running, such as royalties.
- passive investment incomeInvestment income requiring no active involvement, such as royalties, rents, dividends, interest, annuities, and gain…
- passive lossA loss, deductible only within limits, from an activity the taxpayer takes no active part in, from renting property,…
- passive negligenceNegligence consisting of a failure to act, such as not clearing a hazard from public property.
- passive trustA trust in which the trustee's only duty is to hand the property over to the beneficiary.
- passportA formal document certifying a person's identity and citizenship so that they may travel to and from other countries.
- past considerationAn act done or a promise given before the promise now being sued on was made. It is not consideration for the new pro…
- past recollection recordedA document about events a witness once knew but can no longer remember. Though hearsay, it may be admitted, or read i…
- Pasula-Robinette testIn mine-safety law, the framework for a claim that a miner was punished for making a safety complaint. The miner must…
- pat-downA quick search of a person's outer clothing by hand, made to discover a concealed weapon.
- Pate hearingA proceeding in which the trial court decides whether a criminal defendant is competent to stand trial.
- pateat universis per praesentesLet it be open to all by these presents.
- patentA government grant giving an inventor the exclusive right to make, use, and sell an invention for a set period, gener…
- patent ambiguityAn ambiguity obvious on the face of a document, arising from its own wording.
- Patent and Copyright ClauseThe clause of the Constitution empowering Congress to promote the progress of science and the useful arts by securing…
- Patent and Trademark OfficeThe Commerce Department agency that examines patent and trademark applications, grants patents, registers trademarks,…
- patent defectA defect that a normally observant person would notice, especially a buyer making a reasonable inspection.
- patent disclaimerA patent applicant's amendment giving up part of the claim to the invention. Where part is not patentable, filing one…
- patent infringementMaking, using, offering to sell, selling, or importing a patented invention into the United States without the owner'…
- patent insuranceInsurance against loss from someone infringing the insured's patent; also cover against a claim that the insured has…
- patent medicineA packaged medicine sold under a trademark and available without a prescription.
- patent of precedenceA royal grant giving a barrister the rank and right of being heard before others, as the grant specified.
- patent pendingThe label given to an invention while the Patent and Trademark Office is considering the application. It gives no pro…
- patent poolingThe cross-licensing of patents among their holders. It does not offend the antitrust laws unless it is used to suppre…
- patent rightA right secured by a patent.
- patent writAn open writ, not closed or sealed up.
- patent-right dealerA person who sells patent rights or brokers their sale.
- patentableCapable of being patented.
- patenteeThe person to whom a patent has been granted.
- paterfamiliasThe male head of a household in Roman law, holding authority over its members.
- paternalHaving to do with, or coming from, one's father.
- paternal lineA person's ancestry traced through the father.
- paternal propertyProperty coming from a person's father and his side of the family.
- paternal-line descentDescent between two people traced through the father of the younger.
- paternalismA government's practice of taking charge of its citizens' own affairs, supplying their needs or regulating their cond…
- paternityBeing a father, above all the biological one.
- paternity suitA court proceeding to decide whether a person is a child's father, usually brought by the mother in order to obtain c…
- paternity testA test, usually of DNA, for deciding whether a particular man is a child's biological father.
- pathological intoxicationAn extreme and disproportionate reaction to an intoxicant. Where the reaction could not have been foreseen, the law m…
- pathologyThe branch of medicine that studies the origins, symptoms, and nature of disease.
- patiensA person who suffers or permits something: the passive party in a transaction.
- patientA person under medical or psychiatric care.
- patient-litigant exceptionAn exception to the doctor-patient privilege: the patient loses it by suing the doctor for malpractice.
- patient-physician privilegeThe right to keep out of evidence confidential communications a patient made to a physician for diagnosis or treatmen…
- patient's bill of rightsA statement of patients’ rights, either adopted voluntarily by a healthcare provider or required by statute, covering…
- patriaIn Roman law, the fatherland or a person's home district. In older English usage, the country or a part of it, such a…
- patria potestasIn Roman law, a father's authority over his children and their descendants, which lasted as long as he lived.
- patricidalHaving to do with the killing of one's father.
- patricideThe killing of one's own father; also the person who does it.
- patrimonialHaving to do with an inheritance, above all from a male ancestor.
- patrimoniumProperty capable of being inherited: private property.
- patrimonyAn estate inherited from one's father or another ancestor. In civil law, the whole of a person's assets and liabiliti…
- patronA regular customer of a business; also a person who supports or protects someone or something.
- patronageSupport or sponsorship; also the customers of a business, and the power to appoint people to government posts or to h…
- patruusIn Roman and civil law, a father's brother: a paternal uncle.
- patruus maximusA great-great-great-uncle on the father's side.
- patternA way of behaving, or a series of acts, consistent enough to be recognized as a course of conduct.
- pattern jury chargeA ready-made jury charge, usually approved by a state bar association or similar body, covering matters that arise in…
- pattern jury instructionA ready-made jury charge, usually approved by a state bar association or similar body, covering matters that arise in…
- pattern of racketeering activityTwo or more related criminal acts that amount to, or threaten, continued criminal activity. The phrase comes from the…
- pattern similarityIn copyright law, a likeness between two works in the sequence and arrangement of their elements rather than in any p…
- paucitalOf a right, availing against one person or a few named people rather than against the world.
- pauperA very poor person, above all one supported by charity or public funds.
- pauper's oathA sworn statement of poverty made by someone applying for public funds or for leave to sue without paying court fees.
- pauperiesDamage done by a four-footed animal, for which its owner was liable.
- pawnPersonal property handed over as security for a debt; also the act of handing it over, and the state of being held on…
- pawnbrokerA person who lends money, usually at a high rate of interest, against personal property the borrower leaves as security.
- pawneeThe person who takes personal property as security for a debt.
- pawnorThe person who hands over personal property as security for a debt.
- pay any bankAn indorsement on a draft allowing only banks to take the rights of a holder, until the draft is returned to the cust…
- payableOf a sum of money or an instrument, to be paid. A sum may be payable without yet being due, as debts commonly are lon…
- payable after sightPayable after the instrument has been accepted, or after acceptance has been refused and protest made.
- payable dateThe date on which dividends or other distributions to shareholders formally become payable.
- payable on demandPayable when presented or on request: payable at any time.
- payable to bearerPayable to whoever holds the instrument.
- payback methodAn accounting method that measures how long it takes to recover the cash first invested in a venture.
- payback periodThe time needed to recover the cash first invested in a venture, without allowing for the time value of money.
- paydownA loan payment smaller than the whole principal outstanding.
- payeeThe person to whom money is paid or payable, above all the one named in an instrument as the recipient.
- payerThe person who pays, above all the one responsible for paying a negotiable instrument.
- paying quantitiesIn oil-and-gas law, production that earns more than the cost of drilling, equipping, and running the well, so that th…
- paymentThe carrying out of an obligation, usually by handing over money. Other things may be delivered and accepted instead,…
- payment bondA bond a surety gives to cover sums that go unpaid to a subcontractor or supplier because the main contractor has def…
- payment dateThe date on which dividends or interest are actually paid out to shareholders.
- payment in due courseA payment to the holder of a negotiable instrument at or after maturity, made in good faith and without notice of any…
- payment intangibleA general intangible whose main obligation on the debtor's part is to pay money.
- payment into courtMoney or property a party deposits with the court, to be paid out after the proceeding according to the parties' sett…
- payoffA secret payment made to secure a favor or to buy someone's silence or cooperation.
- payolaA secret payment for a favor, above all one made to a broadcaster to promote a record.
- payorThe person who pays, above all the one responsible for paying a negotiable instrument.
- payor bankA bank asked to pay the amount of a negotiable instrument, which on accepting becomes bound to pay it; a bank at whic…
- payout periodThe time an asset takes to earn back what was invested in it, above all in oil and gas the time a well takes to produ…
- payout ratioThe ratio between a company's dividend per share and its earnings per share.
- payroll taxA tax an employer pays on its payroll, such as social-security or unemployment tax; also a tax the employer withholds…
- paysThe country; also, in older usage, a jury.
- PBGCThe Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, the federal body that insures private defined-benefit pension plans.
- PCR actionA state or federal procedure by which a prisoner asks a court to set aside or correct a conviction or sentence after…
- peacePublic tranquility: freedom from civil disturbance or violence.
- peace bondA bond a court requires from someone who has broken the peace or threatened to.
- Peace of God and the churchThe suspension of litigation between terms and on Sundays and holy days.
- peace officerA civil officer such as a sheriff or police officer appointed to keep public order. The phrase may also cover a judge…
- peace treatyA treaty signed by heads of state to end a war.
- peace warrantA warrant a justice of the peace issues for the arrest of a named person who has threatened the peace.
- peace, justice ofA local judicial officer with jurisdiction over minor criminal and civil matters, who may also administer oaths and p…
- peaceable possessionPossession held without dispute or challenge from anyone.
- peacetimeA period in which a country has declared neither war nor a national emergency, even if it is in fact caught up in a c…
- peak demandThe moment in a given period when customers' use puts the greatest demand on a utility.
- peccaviI have sinned: an acknowledgment or confession of guilt.
- peculationEmbezzlement, above all by a public official.
- peculatorA person who embezzles public funds.
- peculatusIn Roman law, the offense of stealing or embezzling public money.
- peculiar-risk doctrineThe rule that an employer is liable for injury an independent contractor causes where the employer failed to guard ag…
- peculiumIn Roman law, property the head of a household allowed a son or a slave to hold and use at their own discretion in bu…
- pecunia constitutaA debt confirmed by a fresh promise to pay it.
- pecunia non numerataIn Roman law, money that was never actually paid.
- pecunia numerataFormerly, money counted out: money handed over in payment of a debt.
- pecuniaryHaving to do with money.
- pecuniary benefitA benefit that can be valued in money.
- pecuniary bequestA gift of money by will; a legacy.
- pecuniary causeA suit that could be brought in a church court to redress a wrong touching the church, such as a parishioner's failur…
- pecuniary damagesDamages that can be worked out and made good in money.
- pecuniary gainA gain measurable in money.
- pecuniary legacyA gift by will, above all of money or other personal property.
- pecuniary lossA loss of money, or of something that can be valued in money.
- pedageA toll paid for the right to travel through another's land.
- pedagiumA toll paid for the right to travel through another's land.
- pedal possessionPossession shown by actually setting foot on the land and using it, rather than by any paper title.
- pedaneusIn Roman law, a judge who sat at the foot of the tribunal, in the lowest seat, ready to try minor cases at the magist…
- pederastA man who engages in anal intercourse with a boy.
- pederastyAnal intercourse between a man and a boy.
- pedigreeA record of family descent: ancestry or lineage.
- pedis abscissioThe cutting off of a foot, once inflicted as a punishment.
- pedis positioFormerly, the placing of the foot: possession of land taken by actually entering on it.
- pedis possessioA foothold: actual physical possession of land, as by working on it.
- pedis possessio doctrineThe rule that a prospector actually working a site on public land is protected against fraudulent or forcible intrusi…
- Peeping TomA person who spies on another, as through a window, usually for sexual gratification.
- peerA person of equal standing, rank, or character with another.
- peer-review organizationA body that monitors whether private hospitals seeking public money, such as Medicare payments, comply with health re…
- peer-review privilegeThe protection that keeps the records and discussions of a hospital's or professional body's review committee out of…
- peer-reviewed journalA journal whose practice is to send submitted articles to disinterested experts, who screen them for scholarly or sci…
- peers of feesVassals of the same lord, who judged disputes arising over their fees.
- peine forte et dureFormerly, the punishment of an accused felon who refused to plead: heavy weights were piled on the body until the per…
- pellAn Exchequer officer who entered the tellers' bills on parchment rolls, called pells, one for money received and the…
- pen registerA device that records the numbers dialed from a telephone, without listening to the conversation.
- penalHaving to do with a penalty or punishment, above all for a crime.
- penal actionA criminal prosecution; also, a civil case in which the state or an informer sues someone who has broken a statute an…
- penal billA bond requiring the obligor to pay a stated sum as a penalty if the underlying obligation is not performed.
- penal bondA bond requiring the obligor to pay a stated sum as a penalty if the underlying obligation is not performed.
- penal clauseA contract term imposing an excessive money charge on a party who defaults. Such terms are generally unenforceable.
- penal codeA compilation of the criminal law, usually defining and classifying offenses and setting out their punishments.
- penal custodyCustody meant to punish a criminal offender.
- penal institutionA state or federal place of confinement for convicted criminals, above all felons.
- penal lawThe body of law defining offenses against the community, regulating how suspects are investigated, charged, and tried…
- penal liabilityLiability arising from a proceeding meant, at least in part, to punish the wrongdoer.
- penal redressA form of penal liability requiring the wrongdoer to compensate the injured person in full as a way of punishing them…
- penal sanctionA penalty attached to a criminal conviction, such as a fine or an order of restitution.
- penal statuteA law defining an offense and fixing the fine or punishment for it.
- penal sumThe sum named as the penalty in a penal bond.
- penaltyPunishment imposed on a wrongdoer, usually a fine or imprisonment, and sometimes imposed for civil wrongs as well as…
- penalty clauseA clause fixing a sum payable on breach that is really meant to punish rather than to estimate the loss. Courts look…
- penanceA punishment an ecclesiastical court imposed for a spiritual offense.
- pendOf a lawsuit, to be awaiting decision or settlement.
- pendencyThe state of being still undecided.
- pendensA pending lawsuit, and the control a court acquires over property while the action is going on.
- pendentNot yet decided; also having to do with pendent jurisdiction, or contingent on something else.
- pendent jurisdictionA court's power to decide a claim it could not otherwise hear, because that claim arises from the same events as a cl…
- pendent-claim jurisdictionA court's power to decide a claim it could not otherwise hear, because that claim arises from the same transaction as…
- pendent-party jurisdictionA court's power to decide a claim by or against a party it could not otherwise reach, because the claim arises from t…
- pendente lite administrationAn administration granted while a lawsuit about a will's validity is going on.
- pendingStill undecided, or awaiting decision.
- pending-ordinance doctrineThe rule that a municipality may refuse an application for a use of land that satisfies the law as it stands but woul…
- pending, prepThroughout the continuance of; also while awaiting, or until.
- penetration pricingPricing a new product below its expected market price so as to break into a market, discourage competitors, and recov…
- penitentiaryA place of long-term confinement for convicted criminals: a prison.
- Pennoyer ruleThe rule that a court may not give personal judgment against a defendant over whom it has no personal jurisdiction.
- Pennsylvania ruleIn tort law, the rule that a wrongdoer who broke a statute while causing an injury bears the burden of showing that t…
- penny stockA share not traded on an established market, backed by no real assets or by a company too small for an exchange listi…
- penologistA person who studies penal institutions and the punishment and rehabilitation of offenders.
- penologyThe study of penal institutions, crime prevention, and the punishment and rehabilitation of offenders, including the…
- pensioIn Roman and civil law, a payment for the use of a thing, such as rent for a house.
- pensionA fixed sum paid regularly to a person, or to their beneficiaries, above all by an employer as a retirement benefit.
- pension planAn employer's plan for paying long-term retirement benefits to employees or their beneficiaries, providing systematic…
- pension trustA pension plan funded by the employer, above all one under which the employer hands trustees enough to cover the bene…
- pensionerA person who receives a pension.
- penumbraA shadowy edge of uncertain extent. In constitutional law, the Supreme Court has held that the express guarantees of…
- peonageUnlawful forced labor imposed to work off a debt.
- peppercornA token payment of no real value, given to satisfy the rule that a contract needs consideration.
- per autre vieFor another's life: describing an estate that lasts as long as some other named person lives.
- per capitaBy the head: divided equally among all the individuals, usually of the same class.
- per capita taxA fixed tax levied on each person within a jurisdiction. The Twenty-Fourth Amendment forbids making payment of such a…
- per capita with representationDivided equally among all members of a class of takers, counting those who died before the testator, so that no branc…
- per contraOn the other hand: by contrast.
- per curiamBy the court as a whole, without naming the judge who wrote the opinion.
- per curiam opinionAn opinion handed down by an appellate court without naming the judge who wrote it.
- per diemBy the day, or for each day.
- per eundemBy the same: often used in the phrase meaning by the same judge in the same case.
- per formam doniBy the form of the gift: taking under the terms the giver laid down rather than by operation of law.
- per incuriamOf a judicial decision, reached in error because the court overlooked a statute or binding authority, so that it need…
- per minasDuress by threats of death, maiming, or other serious harm to a person.
- per mitter l'estateBy passing the estate: the way a joint tenant came to hold the whole estate on receiving the other joint tenant’s share.
- per mitter le droitBy passing the right: the way a release took effect where someone dispossessed of land released their claim to the pe…
- per my et per toutBy the half and by the whole: the way joint tenants hold, by the half for survivorship and by the whole for alienation.
- per procurationemBy proxy: signed or done by an agent on another's behalf.
- per quod servitium amisitWhereby he lost the services of his servant: the phrase in a trespass declaration describing the loss a master suffer…
- per seBy itself, without reference to anything else; also, as a matter of law.
- per se deadly weaponA weapon that counts as deadly in itself, whatever it is used for, such as a firearm, as opposed to an object that be…
- per se ruleIn antitrust law, the rule that certain trade practices are unlawful in themselves, without any inquiry into whether…
- per se violationIn antitrust law, a trade practice such as price-fixing that is treated as inherently anticompetitive, so that no pro…
- per stirpesBy the branch: divided among beneficiaries according to the share their deceased ancestor would have taken.
- per totam curiamBy the whole court.
- per tout et non per myBy the whole and not by the half: describing the estate held by a married couple, each seised of the entire estate.
- per universitatemIn civil law, as a whole: describing the taking of an entire estate at once, above all a whole inheritance by univers…
- perambulationWalking the boundaries of a piece of land, either to confirm them or to preserve evidence of where they run.
- perambulatione faciendaA writ requiring the boundaries between two properties to be walked and settled.
- percentage leaseA lease whose rent is a percentage of gross or net sales or profits, subject to a fixed minimum.
- percentage orderAn order to buy or sell a stated amount of a stock once a fixed number of its shares have traded.
- percentage-of-completion methodAn accounting method under which revenue is recognized in stages as the work under a contract is carried out.
- perceptionThe taking of something into possession, as of rents or profits.
- percolating waterWater that seeps through the soil without any defined channel, such as rainwater or water that has left a stream. It…
- perdonatio utlagariaeA pardon given to someone outlawed for failing to answer a court's summons, available to a person who surrendered vol…
- perduellioIn Roman law, treasonous conduct such as joining the enemy or deserting the field, later absorbed into the wider cate…
- perdurableOf an estate in land, lasting or enduring.
- peremptIn civil law, to quash or extinguish; informally, to use a peremptory challenge.
- peremptionThe period within which a right must be exercised, after which the right itself is destroyed. Prescription merely bar…
- peremptoryFinal and conclusive; also requiring no reason to be given.
- peremptory challengeOne of a limited number of objections a party may make to a juror without giving any reason, though it may not be use…
- peremptory dayA day fixed for trial or hearing with no further chance of postponement.
- peremptory defenseA defense challenging the claimant's legal right to sue, or asserting that the right has been extinguished.
- peremptory exceptionA pleading asserting that the law gives no remedy for the injury alleged, that the claim is barred by res judicata or…
- peremptory instructionA direction the jury must obey, such as an order to return a verdict for a particular party.
- peremptory mandamusAn absolute and unqualified command to the defendant to do the act in question, issued when the defendant defaults on…
- peremptory pleaA plea in bar that meets the merits of the charge and, if made out, defeats the prosecution altogether.
- peremptory strikeOne of a limited number of objections a party may make to a prospective juror without giving any reason, though it ma…
- peremptory writAt common law, an original writ issued where the claimant sought only general damages, as in trespass. Issued once th…
- perfectTo take every legal step needed to complete or secure a claim, right, or interest, and so bring it into full conformi…
- perfect attestation clauseA clause in a will stating that everything the law requires for a valid testamentary disposition has been done.
- perfect competitionA market working at full efficiency, with many buyers and sellers, an identical product, everyone fully informed, and…
- perfect dutyA duty that the law not only recognizes but will actually enforce.
- perfect equityAn equitable title lacking only the formal conveyance that would make it good at law, as with a buyer of land who has…
- perfect instrumentAn instrument, such as a deed or mortgage, that has been properly signed and filed with a public registry.
- perfect rightA right the law recognizes and will fully enforce.
- perfect self-defenseThe use of force by someone who correctly judges both the need for force and how much is required to repel the attack.
- perfect tenderA tender by the seller that meets the contract exactly as to the quality and description of the goods.
- perfect titleA title good both at law and in equity, needing no further act to make it absolute and free of any defect that could…
- perfect usufructIn Roman and civil law, a right to use another's property for a time without damaging or consuming it, though natural…
- perfect warA war in which a whole nation is engaged against another, as opposed to hostilities confined to particular places or…
- perfect-tender ruleIn commercial law, the rule that a buyer may reject the goods if their quality, quantity, or delivery fails in any re…
- perfected security interestA security interest that has met the statutory requirements for taking priority over other interests subject to the s…
- perfecting amendmentA legislative amendment that corrects minor problems in a bill or adjusts it slightly to attract more support.
- perfectionThe steps that make a security interest good against other creditors, usually by filing a statement with a public off…
- perfidyIn international law, conduct that leads an adversary to believe they are entitled to protection under the laws of wa…
- performTo carry out what a contract requires. A party faced with the other side's repudiation who chooses to wait and press…
- performanceThe carrying out of a contractual duty, which usually releases the performer from further liability.
- performance bondA bond a surety gives to guarantee that a contract will be performed on time. In large international agreements such…
- performance fundA mutual fund that buys aggressively into stocks expected to grow quickly.
- performance planA bonus scheme under which executives are paid according to how far the company grows.
- performance rightA copyright holder's exclusive right to recite, play, act, show, or otherwise present the work in public, whether dir…
- performance sharesStock given to an executive when the company meets a stated performance target.
- performance stockA stock that attracts wide public interest because of its real or supposed potential for rapid growth or high earnings.
- perilExposure to the risk of injury, damage, or loss; in insurance law, the cause of a loss to person or property.
- peril of the seaA force of the elements at sea strong enough to overcome a sound ship handled with ordinary good seamanship. Such a p…
- periodic alimonyAlimony paid in regular installments, usually weekly or monthly, either indefinitely or until a date the court sets.…
- periodic estateA tenancy that renews itself for successive periods, usually month to month or year to year, unless notice is given a…
- periodic tenancyA tenancy that renews itself for successive periods, usually month by month or year by year, until one side gives not…
- periodic-payment-plan certificateA certificate or investment contract under which the holder pays by installments and receives an undivided share in s…
- peripheral rightA right that surrounds or springs from another right.
- periphrasisA roundabout way of saying something.
- perjureTo make a deliberate false statement under oath about something material.
- perjuryDeliberately making a false or misleading statement about a material matter while under oath.
- perjury-trap doctrineThe rule that a perjury charge must be dismissed where the prosecution got it by calling the person before a grand ju…
- perkA benefit given on top of one's salary or wages.
- permanent abodeThe place a person treats as home: their fixed and principal residence, to which they mean to return even if living e…
- permanent alimonyAlimony payable by regular installments, usually weekly or monthly, either indefinitely or until a date the court set…
- permanent allegianceThe lasting allegiance citizens or subjects owe their state.
- permanent charge d'affairesA diplomat permanently accredited to a foreign government, ranking below an ambassador or minister.
- permanent committeeA permanent legislative committee dealing with a particular field of law. It usually considers questions of policy, h…
- permanent disabilityA disability that will indefinitely prevent a worker from doing some or all of the work they could do before an accid…
- permanent employmentWork that, under the contract, is to go on indefinitely until one side chooses to end it for a legitimate reason.
- permanent financingA long-term loan taken out to pay off a temporary one, as when a mortgage loan repays a construction loan.
- permanent fixturePersonal property attached to land or a building so firmly that it counts as part of the real property, such as a fir…
- permanent injunctionAn injunction granted after a full hearing on the merits. Despite being called permanent, it does not necessarily las…
- permanent injuryA completed wrong whose consequences cannot be put right for an indefinite time; also harm to land that will last unt…
- permanent lawA statute that stays in force indefinitely.
- permanent nuisanceA nuisance that cannot readily be put right at reasonable expense.
- permanent trespassA trespass made up of a series of like acts on consecutive days, renewed from day to day, which together form one ind…
- permanent wardA ward given a permanent guardian, the natural parents' rights having been ended by a juvenile court.
- permissible appointeeSomeone to whom property may be given under a power of appointment.
- permissible inferenceThe rule that a jury deciding a case may draw any reasonable inference from the evidence put before it.
- permissionThe act of permitting; also the liberty or authorization to do something.
- permissive abstentionAbstention a bankruptcy court may choose, but is not obliged, to exercise where a dispute relates to the bankruptcy e…
- permissive counterclaimA counterclaim a defendant need not raise, usually because it does not arise out of the same matter as the claimant's…
- permissive inferenceAn inference the factfinder is permitted, but not required, to draw from proven facts.
- permissive joinderThe optional joining of parties where their claims, or the claims against them, are made jointly, severally, or out o…
- permissive presumptionA presumption the factfinder may act on but is not obliged to accept, leaving the burden of proof where it lay.
- permissive subject of bargainingA bargaining subject outside the basic terms of employment, on which the parties need not bargain but which managemen…
- permissive useA passive use resorted to before the Statute of Uses of 1535 to escape a burdensome feudal rule, by naming one person…
- permissive wasteA tenant's failure to make ordinary repairs, so that the property falls into substantial decay.
- permitA document evidencing official permission to do something: a licence.
- permit bondA bond required of someone seeking a licence to carry on a particular business or to enjoy a particular privilege.
- permit cardA document a union issues to a non-member allowing them to work on a job the union controls.
- permutatioAn agreement to barter or exchange one thing for another.
- pernancyThe taking or receiving of something, as of the profits of an estate.
- pernor of profitsA person who takes the profits of property.
- perpInformally, the perpetrator of a crime.
- perparsA share of an estate formerly held in common: a part taken on a division.
- perpetrateTo commit or carry out an act, above all a crime.
- perpetratorThe person who commits a crime or other offense.
- perpetuaA peremptory exception that destroyed the ground of the action for good, such as the pleas of fraud or of duress.
- perpetual bondA bond with no maturity date, which goes on paying interest indefinitely.
- perpetual edictThe praetor's edict as republished in legislative form and meant to last indefinitely, until repealed by a later enac…
- perpetual freeholdAn estate granted to a person for life and then, one after another, to that person's heirs for life. It kept land in…
- perpetual injunctionAn injunction granted after a full hearing on the merits. Despite being called permanent, it does not necessarily las…
- perpetual leaseA lease with no fixed end; also a grant of land in fee reserving a rent in fee.
- perpetual statuteA law with no provision for its repeal or expiry, which therefore continues until the legislature ends it.
- perpetual successionA corporation's unbroken continuance as the same body, whatever changes there are among its shareholders and officers…
- perpetual trustA trust meant to last as long as the need for it lasts, such as for a beneficiary's lifetime or the life of a charity.
- perpetuating testimonyThe procedure for preserving a witness's evidence for later use at a trial where it might otherwise be unavailable.
- perpetuities, rule againstIn property law, the rule that a future interest is void unless it must vest, if at all, within 21 years after the de…
- perpetuityContinuing forever. In the law of property, an interest that does not have to vest within the period the law allows,…
- perpetuity of the king or queenThe fiction of English law that the sovereign never dies: the person dies, but the office is never vacant.
- perquisiteA benefit given on top of one's salary or wages.
- perquisitorA buyer, above all the first person to acquire an estate by purchase or gift rather than by inheritance.
- persecutioA lawsuit or civil claim.
- persequiTo pursue a claim through a legal proceeding.
- persistent price discriminationCharging different buyers different prices for the same goods over a long period, though the cost of producing them i…
- personA human being; also an entity such as a company that the law recognizes as having rights and duties. The word also me…
- person aggrievedA person whose personal, financial, or property rights another's actions, or a court's judgment, have harmed.
- person in loco parentisA person acting in a parent's place, who has taken on a parent's duties without formally adopting the child.
- person of incidenceThe person against whom a right can be enforced: the one who owes the duty.
- person of inherenceThe person in whom a right is vested: the owner of the right.
- person-endangering state of mindAn intent to kill, to inflict serious injury, to act in reckless disregard of a grave risk, or to commit a dangerous…
- persona grataAn acceptable person, above all a diplomat the host country is willing to receive.
- persona standi in judicioThe capacity to appear in court and be heard.
- personableHaving the standing of a legal person, and so able to sue, be sued, and make contracts.
- personae grataeAcceptable persons: diplomats the host country is willing to receive.
- personae non grataePersons who are not acceptable, above all diplomats a host country refuses to receive or requires to leave.
- personalConcerning a person; also concerning personal property rather than land.
- personal actionAn action to recover debts, personal property, or damages from any cause.
- personal assetAn asset in the form of money or goods.
- personal bondA written document by which an obligor formally acknowledges a duty to pay money or do a specified act.
- personal chattelA tangible movable good, or an intangible right such as a patent.
- personal checkA check drawn on a person's own account.
- personal defenseAn ordinary contract defense, such as failure of consideration or non-performance of a condition, which the maker or…
- personal demandA demand for payment made face to face with the drawer, maker, or acceptor of a bill or note.
- personal effectsItems of a personal character, above all the personal belongings someone owned at their death.
- personal estateThe personal property a person owns, as distinct from their land.
- personal evidenceEvidence a competent witness gives on oath or affirmation at trial, or in an affidavit or deposition.
- personal exemptionA set amount an individual taxpayer may deduct from adjusted gross income.
- personal holding companyA holding company subject to special taxes, usually with few shareholders and with most of its income coming from div…
- personal incomeAll the income an individual receives, from every source.
- personal injuryIn negligence, any bodily harm, such as a broken bone, cut, or bruise. The phrase also covers any invasion of a perso…
- personal judgmentA judgment imposing personal liability on the defendant, enforceable against any of the defendant's property the cour…
- personal jurisdictionA court's power to bring a person into its process: power over a defendant personally, rather than merely over property.
- personal justiceJustice as between the parties to a particular dispute, without regard to any wider principle at stake.
- personal knowledgeKnowledge gained by seeing or experiencing something oneself, as opposed to belief founded on what someone else has s…
- personal lawThe law governing a person's family and status, which usually follows them wherever they go. Common-law systems take…
- personal liabilityLiability for which a person is answerable personally, so that the injured party may look to their own assets to sati…
- personal libertyA person's freedom to do as they please, limited only by the government's power to protect public health, safety, and…
- personal noticeNotice, spoken or written as the circumstances require, given directly to the person affected.
- personal propertyMovable property of every kind, as distinguished from land and what is attached to it.
- personal recognizanceThe release of a criminal defendant on nothing more than their promise to appear when required, without money or a su…
- personal replevinAt common law, an action to recover a person out of prison or another's custody. Habeas corpus has largely replaced i…
- personal representativeA person who manages another's legal affairs because of incapacity or death, such as the executor of an estate.
- personal rightA right belonging to a person's own status or condition, as opposed to a right in their property.
- personal securityAn obligation to repay a debt backed by a person's own promise rather than by property; also a person's legal right t…
- personal serviceActual delivery of a notice or process to the person it is directed to; also work done by a person themselves, involv…
- personal servitudeA servitude giving a particular person rights over property, which ends with that person rather than running with the…
- personal statuteIn civil law, a law governing a person's status and capacity, which follows them wherever they go.
- personal suretyshipA suretyship in which the surety answers in damages rather than by giving up particular property.
- personal tortA tort consisting of injury to a person's body, reputation, or feelings, as opposed to damage to their property.
- personal trustA trust created for the benefit of named beneficiaries rather than for the public. Three things are needed: words suf…
- personal warrantyA warranty arising from an obligation to pay all or part of someone else's debt.
- personal-holding-company taxA federal tax on the undistributed income of a personal holding company, imposed to stop shareholders from sheltering…
- personal-property taxA state or local tax on personal property, such as jewelry or household furniture.
- personalis actioFormerly, a personal action: one brought against a person rather than a thing.
- personalityThe status of being a person in law: the conception by which the law treats a human being or an artificial body as a…
- personaltyPersonal property, as distinguished from land.
- personamAgainst a person: describing an action or judgment directed at a particular person rather than at a thing.
- personationPretending to be someone else.
- persuadeTo induce someone to do something.
- persuasionInfluencing others by reasoned argument.
- persuasion burdenA party's duty to convince the factfinder of a fact. In an ordinary civil case that means proving it on the balance o…
- persuasive authorityAuthority that carries weight with a court without binding it.
- persuasive precedentA precedent a court may follow if it finds the reasoning convincing, but is not bound to.
- pertinentBearing on the matter at hand: relevant.
- pertinent artIn patent law, earlier work in the same field as the invention, which is weighed in deciding whether the invention is…
- perverse verdictA jury verdict so contrary to the evidence that a new trial must be granted.
- petensA claimant in a real action.
- peter-penceA tax of a penny on each household in England, paid to the Pope, collected on the feast of St. Peter.
- petitSmall or minor.
- petit capeA writ filed to recover possession of land.
- petit jurorA trial juror, as opposed to a grand juror.
- petit juryThe jury, usually of six or twelve, summoned and sworn to try a particular case.
- petit larcenyLarceny of property worth less than the amount a statute sets, often $100 or less. It is usually a misdemeanor.
- petit serjeantyA tenure by service that the tenant need not perform in person, or that was not personal in kind, such as an annual r…
- petite assizeA jury convened to decide questions of possession.
- Petite policyThe Justice Department's rule against bringing a federal prosecution after a state or federal prosecution for the sam…
- petitioIn civil law, a claimant's suit, above all one brought against a thing; in older English usage, a petition or demand,…
- petitionA formal written request to a court or other official body.
- petition de droitThe old procedure by which a subject sought redress from the Crown, which could not be sued in the ordinary way, by p…
- petition in bankruptcyA formal written request to a bankruptcy court seeking protection for an insolvent debtor. The debtor files it in a v…
- petition of rightOne of the four great charters of English liberty, of 1628, establishing that no one may be compelled to make a gift,…
- petitionerA party who presents a petition to a court or other official body, above all one seeking relief on appeal.
- petitorA claimant in a civil action.
- petitoriumAn action to establish and enforce title to property, apart from any question of who is entitled to possess it.
- petitory actionAn action to establish and enforce title to property, separately from any right to possess it.
- pettifoggerA lawyer lacking learning, ability, or sound judgment, above all one who obscures an issue with trifling details.
- pettySmall or minor.
- petty assizeAn assize begun by an original writ. These were marked out by the form of the writ, which set out the questions for t…
- petty cashCash kept on hand to meet small everyday expenses.
- petty juryThe jury, usually of six or twelve people, summoned and sworn to try a particular case.
- petty larcenyLarceny of property worth less than the amount a statute sets, usually a misdemeanor.
- petty offenseA minor crime, punishable by a small fine or a short term of confinement.
- petty officerAn enlisted member of the Navy or Coast Guard at pay grade E-4 or above.
- petty sessionsIn England, sittings of a justices' court to try minor offenses summarily, without a jury.
- petty treasonFormerly, the killing of a person to whom the killer owed obedience, such as a master by a servant or a husband by a…
- phantom juryA group of mock jurors paid to watch a trial and report their reactions to a consultant hired by one side. Matched as…
- phantom stockNotional stock credited to an executive's account as part of their pay, tracking the value of the company's real shar…
- phantom stock planA long-term benefit plan under which an employee is credited with units that behave like the employer's shares. It is…
- Philadelphia lawyerA shrewd and learned lawyer. The phrase can be used either admiringly or sourly today, but in colonial times it was p…
- philosophie du droitThe branch of legal philosophy concerned with the ethical significance and adequacy of law, bringing moral and legal…
- philosophy of lawThe study of the fundamental nature of law and of the assumptions on which a legal system rests.
- phonorecordA physical object, such as a record, tape, or disc, in which sounds are fixed so that they can be heard or reproduced…
- physical crueltyAs a ground for divorce, actual violence by one spouse against the other.
- physical custodyCustody of someone, such as a person under arrest, whose freedom of movement is directly controlled.
- physical diagnosisA diagnosis reached from physical examination alone.
- physical disabilityAn incapacity arising from a physical defect or infirmity, or from bodily or mental weakness.
- physical factA fact with a physical existence, such as a fingerprint left at a crime scene.
- physical forceForce made up of a physical act, especially a violent one used against the victim of a robbery.
- physical harmBodily injury or damage to a person or thing.
- physical impossibilityImpossibility arising because the act simply cannot be done in the circumstances, as with picking an empty pocket. It…
- physical incapacityA person's inability to have sexual intercourse. Because it prevents a marriage being consummated, it has often been…
- physical injuryPhysical harm to a person's body.
- physical necessityA necessity created by an actual physical force that leaves a person no choice but to act as they did.
- physical shockShock to the body caused by a sudden violent blow, impact, or collision.
- physical-facts ruleIn the law of evidence, the rule that spoken testimony may be disregarded where it cannot be reconciled with the phys…
- physical-impact ruleIn tort law, the old rule that there could be no damages for negligently inflicted emotional distress unless there ha…
- physical-inventory accounting methodA way of valuing a company's goods by physically counting them at the end of an accounting period.
- physical-proximity testA common-law test for attempt, asking how much more the defendant would have had to do to complete the offense.
- physician-client privilegeThe right to keep out of evidence confidential communications a patient made to a physician for diagnosis or treatmen…
- physician's directiveA written statement of a person’s wishes about medical treatment, to be followed if they become unable to decide for…
- piacleA serious crime, above all one calling for expiation.
- picketingA demonstration outside a business or other body to protest against what it is doing and to press it to meet the prot…
- pickpocketA thief who steals from another's person, usually by stealth but sometimes by a distraction such as bumping into the…
- piecemeal zoningZoning imposed on scattered parcels one at a time rather than under any overall plan for the area.
- pieceworkWork done or paid for by the piece or the job rather than by time.
- piepowder courtFormerly, in medieval England, a court with jurisdiction over a fair or market, presided over by the organizer's stew…
- piercing the corporate veilA court's setting aside of a company's separate personality so as to make its officers, directors, or shareholders pe…
- pignorateTo hand something over as a pledge, or to take something in pawn.
- pignoratioIn Roman law, the handing over of something to a creditor as security. In civil law, the impounding of another's catt…
- pignorativeHaving to do with a pledge, or given by way of pledge.
- pignorative contractIn civil law, a contract in which the seller of land, instead of giving up possession of the property supposedly sold…
- pignoris capioThe taking of a pledge: an early Roman remedy by which a creditor seized a debtor's property to compel payment.
- pignusA bailment in which goods are handed over to secure a debt or the performance of an undertaking, with a power of sale…
- pilferTo steal in small quantities, above all repeatedly.
- pilferageStealing in small quantities; also the things so stolen.
- pillageThe forcible seizure of another's property, above all the plundering of a city or territory in war; also the property…
- pilloryA wooden frame with holes for an offender's head and hands, in which they had to stand exposed to public view.
- pilotA ship's pilot whom the law requires to be taken on for a particular purpose, such as bringing the ship into harbor.…
- pilotageThe navigating of vessels, or the business of doing so; also the fee a pilot earns for taking a vessel into or out of…
- pimpA person who finds customers for a prostitute, usually in return for a share of the earnings.
- pinciteThe page on which a quoted or relevant passage actually appears, as opposed to the page on which the case or article…
- pink sheetA daily list of over-the-counter stocks with their market-makers and prices, printed on pink paper.
- pink slipInformally, a notice of dismissal given to an employee.
- Pinkerton ruleThe rule making a conspirator liable for every offense committed to further the conspiracy, even those actually carri…
- pinpoint citationA reference to the exact page where a quotation or relevant passage appears, as opposed to the page on which the case…
- pioneer drugThe first drug containing a particular active ingredient to be approved by the FDA for a stated use.
- pioneer patentA patent for an invention the field recognizes as pioneering: unexpected, unprecedented, and opening a new line of de…
- Pipe RollsThe Exchequer's records of royal revenue, taking in feudal dues, court fees, and taxes the sheriffs collected. They r…
- piracyRobbery, kidnapping, or other criminal violence committed at sea; also a like crime aboard an aircraft or other vehicle.
- piscaryThe right to fish in particular waters, whether held privately or shared in common with others.
- PITIPrincipal, interest, taxes, and insurance: the parts making up a monthly mortgage payment.
- PKPAThe Parental Kidnapping Prevention Act.
- placardFormerly, an official document such as a licence or permit; also a notice posted in a public place.
- place landLand lying inside the boundaries of a railroad grant, given to the company to help pay for building its right-of-way.
- place of abodeThe place where a person lives.
- place of businessThe place where a person carries on business.
- place of contractingThe country or state in which a contract is made.
- place of deliveryThe place to which the seller must send goods sold. Where the contract says nothing, it is usually the seller's place…
- place of employmentThe place where the work of a business is carried on.
- place-of-wrong lawThe law of the place where the wrong was committed.
- place-of-wrong ruleThe rule that the law of the place where the wrong happened governs the claim.
- placementThe selling of a new issue of securities, or the arranging of a loan or mortgage; also the finding of work for a pers…
- placer claimA mining claim to minerals that lie loose in softer ground near the surface rather than in a vein or lode within rock.
- placitareTo plead, or to bring an action in a court of law.
- placitumIn Roman law, an agreement between parties, an imperial constitution, or a judicial decision. The word also names a c…
- plagiarismTaking another's words or ideas and passing them off as one's own.
- plagiaristA person who passes off another's words or ideas as their own.
- plagiumKidnapping, which in Roman law included harboring another's slave.
- plaideurAn advocate: a lawyer who pleads a case.
- plain bondA debt backed only by the debtor's general credit, with no lien on any particular asset; also the instrument acknowle…
- plain errorAn error so obvious and damaging that an appeal court should deal with it even though no proper objection was made at…
- plain meaningThe meaning a court gives a document on a commonsense reading of its words, taking them in their ordinary sense witho…
- plain-feel doctrineIn criminal procedure, the rule that an officer carrying out a lawful pat-down may seize contraband whose illegal or…
- plain-language movementThe loosely organized campaign urging legal and business writers to write clearly and concisely, without legalese, wh…
- plain-meaning ruleThe rule that where a writing appears unambiguous on its face, its meaning must be taken from the writing itself with…
- plain-sight ruleIn criminal procedure, the rule allowing an officer lawfully present to seize an item in open view, without a warrant…
- plain-touch doctrineIn criminal procedure, the rule that an officer carrying out a lawful pat-down may seize contraband whose illegal or…
- plain-vanilla swapThe standard interest-rate swap, in which one side pays a fixed rate and the other a floating rate, both reckoned on…
- plain-view doctrineIn criminal procedure, the rule allowing an officer lawfully present to seize an item in open view, without a warrant…
- plaintIn older usage, a complaint, above all one filed in a replevin action; in civil law, a complaint or petition, above a…
- plaintiffThe party who brings a civil suit.
- plaintiff in errorThe party who brings a proceeding to have a judgment reviewed for error.
- plaintiff's-viewpoint ruleThe rule that the amount in controversy is measured only by the damages the claimant seeks, not by what the case migh…
- PLAMA mortgage with a fixed interest rate whose outstanding principal is adjusted to keep pace with inflation.
- planIn bankruptcy, a detailed program worked out by a debtor or its creditors for the debtor's rehabilitation, continued…
- plan of rehabilitationA detailed program worked out by a debtor or its creditors for the debtor's rehabilitation, continued operation or wi…
- plan of reorganizationA detailed program worked out by a debtor or its creditors for the debtor's rehabilitation, continued operation or wi…
- plan-of-the-convention doctrineThe principle that by ratifying the Constitution each state consented to being sued by another state, so that the Ele…
- planned obsolescenceThe practice of deliberately making consumer goods that will wear out or fall out of date after limited use, so that…
- planned-unit developmentAn area zoned as a single planned community, with flexible limits on residential, commercial, and public uses within it.
- planning boardA local body that approves or refuses proposed building projects. In most places its decisions may be reviewed by the…
- plant patentA patent for the invention or discovery of a new and distinct variety of plant that reproduces asexually.
- platA small piece of land; also a map describing a piece of land and its features, such as boundaries, lots, roads, and e…
- plat mapA document giving the legal description of parcels of land by lot, street, and block number. It is usually drawn afte…
- platformA statement of principles and policies a political party adopts as the basis of its appeal for support.
- pleaAn accused person's formal answer to a criminal charge: guilty, not guilty, or no contest.
- plea bargainAn agreement between prosecutor and defendant under which the defendant pleads guilty to a lesser offense, or to one…
- plea in abatementA plea objecting to the place, time, or manner in which the claim has been brought, without disputing its merits. If…
- plea in barA plea that meets the merits and, if made out, defeats the claim or prosecution for good.
- plea in confession and avoidanceA plea admitting the allegations but pleading further facts that strip them of their legal effect, as a plea of contr…
- plea in dischargeA plea that the defendant has already satisfied and discharged the claimant's claim.
- plea in equityA special defense in equity setting out one or more reasons why the suit should be dismissed, delayed, or barred, so…
- plea in estoppelIn common-law pleading, a plea that neither confesses nor avoids but relies on the other party's own earlier act, all…
- plea in reconventionA plea putting forward new matter not as a defense but as a cross-claim, setoff, or counterclaim.
- plea in suspensionA plea showing some reason why the suit should not go forward for the present and asking that it be stayed until that…
- plea not pureAn equitable plea that is part confession and avoidance and part denial, suited to the case where the claimant has an…
- plea of confession and avoidanceA plea admitting the allegations but pleading further facts that strip them of their legal effect.
- plea of pregnancyFormerly, a plea by which a woman sentenced to death claimed to be pregnant, so that execution was postponed until af…
- plea of privilegeA plea objecting to the venue in which the action has been brought.
- plea of releaseA plea admitting the claim but setting up a written discharge given by someone authorized to release it.
- plea of sanctuaryA plea by which an accused person claimed the protection of a church or other sanctuary and so escaped immediate arrest.
- plea of tenderAt common law, a plea that the defendant has always been willing to pay the debt, offered it to the claimant, and has…
- plea puis darrein continuanceA plea since the last continuance: one raising matter that arose after the previous stage of the case, so that it cou…
- plea to further maintenance to the actionA plea that events since the action began require it to be dismissed. Modern rules of civil procedure have made it ob…
- plea to the countA plea in abatement objecting to the declaration itself.
- plea to the declarationA plea in abatement objecting to the declaration itself.
- plea to the jurisdictionA plea that the court has no jurisdiction, either over the defendant or over the subject matter.
- plea to the person of the defendantA plea in abatement alleging that the defendant is under a legal disability that prevents them being sued.
- plea to the person of the plaintiffA plea in abatement alleging that the claimant is under a legal disability that prevents them suing.
- plea to the writA plea in abatement objecting to the writ, whether to its form, on grounds appearing on its face or outside it, or to…
- pleadTo enter a plea, above all in answer to a criminal charge; also to allege something in a pleading, or to file one.
- plead overTo pass over a defect in an opponent's pleading without objecting to it, so that the objection is lost.
- pleaderA party who puts forward a pleading; also a person who pleads in court for another, and formerly someone who, without…
- pleadingA formal document in which a party to a case sets out or answers allegations, claims, denials, or defenses. In federa…
- pleading the baby actRaising the defense that one was under age when the obligation was incurred, and so not bound by it.
- pleading the FifthClaiming the Fifth Amendment right not to give evidence against oneself.
- pleasure appointmentAn appointment to a post that the appointing authority may end at will, without cause or notice.
- plebiscitaryHaving to do with a plebiscite: decided by a direct vote of the people.
- plebisciteA direct vote of the people on a proposed law, a constitutional change, or another question of public importance, whi…
- plebiscitumIn Roman law, a measure passed at a tribune's request by the assembly of the common people.
- plebsIn Roman law, the common people of Rome, as distinguished from the patricians.
- pledgeA handing over of personal property to a creditor as security for a debt, and the property so handed over; more broad…
- pledgeableCapable of being given as a pledge.
- pledged accountA borrower's account pledged to a lender in return for a loan carrying interest below the market rate.
- pledgerySuretyship given by handing over property as a pledge rather than by a personal promise.
- pledgorA person who gives something as a pledge.
- plegiis acquietandisFormerly, a writ requiring a principal debtor to reimburse a surety who had been obliged to pay in their place.
- plena forisfacturaComplete forfeiture: the loss of everything a person owned.
- plena probatioIn Roman and civil law, full proof: evidence sufficient in itself to establish a fact, as by two witnesses or a publi…
- plenartyThe state of a benefice that is filled by an incumbent.
- plenaryFull and complete; of an assembly, attended by all its members.
- plenary actionA full hearing or trial on the merits, as opposed to a summary proceeding.
- plenary confessionA full confession, treated as conclusive against the person who made it.
- plenary jurisdictionA court's full and unqualified power over both the subject matter and the parties in a case.
- plenary powerPower that is complete in itself, subject to no limit or review by another authority.
- plenary sessionA meeting of all the members of a body, rather than of a committee.
- plenary suitAn action that proceeds on formal pleadings under the ordinary rules of procedure.
- plene administravit praeterA plea by which an executor or administrator says that nothing is left in the estate except a few stated assets, not…
- plenipotentiaryA person given full power to act for another, above all a diplomat authorized to negotiate and conclude a treaty.
- plenum dominiumIn civil law, full ownership, combining the bare title with the right to use and take the profits.
- plevinAn assurance or warrant: a pledge.
- Plimsoll marksThe graduated marks on a ship's side showing the depth to which she may lawfully be loaded in different waters and se…
- plotA measured piece of land; also a plan forming the basis of a conspiracy.
- plot planA plan showing the present or proposed use of a piece of land, above all in a residential area.
- plottageThe rise in value gained by joining small undeveloped parcels into a larger tract.
- plow backTo put earnings back into a business instead of paying them out as dividends or drawings.
- plowboteAn allowance of wood for making and repairing farm equipment.
- plowlandA measure of land for assessment, reckoned at about 120 acres: as much as one plow and eight oxen could work in a yea…
- plowman's feeFormerly, a tenure for peasants or small farmers under which the land passed in equal shares to all the tenant's sons.
- plunderThe forcible seizure of another's property, above all the plundering of a city or territory in war; also the property…
- plural marriageA marriage in which one spouse is already married to someone else: a bigamous or polygamous union.
- pluralityA number greater than any other but short of a majority.
- plurality opinionAn opinion joined by more judges than any other but still short of a majority.
- pluriesA third or later writ issued when the earlier ones have failed to take effect.
- pluries writA third or later writ issued because the earlier ones came to nothing, following an alias writ.
- plurinational administrative institutionIn international law, a body set up to carry out administrative work across borders where political international org…
- plus petitioIn Roman law, the mistake of claiming more in one's pleadings than is actually due. Under classical law it destroyed…
- PMA Postal Service official in charge of a local post office.
- PMIPrivate mortgage insurance, which a lender requires at the borrower's cost where the down payment is small.
- PMMA mortgage the buyer gives the seller when the property is conveyed, to secure the unpaid part of the price.
- PMRTA resulting trust arising where one person pays for property but has the seller convey it to another. The person who…
- PMSIA security interest arising where the lender's money is used to buy the collateral and the buyer at once gives the le…
- poachingUnlawfully taking or killing fish or game on another's land.
- pocket immunityImmunity that comes about because the prosecutor decides not to prosecute, rather than from any formal grant.
- pocket moneyA small gratuity traditionally paid to a ship's master, and sometimes the crew, for looking after the cargo.
- pocket partA supplementary pamphlet slipped into a pocket inside the back cover of a lawbook to update the text until a new edit…
- pocket vetoA veto that takes effect when the President neither signs nor returns a bill and Congress adjourns within the ten day…
- poindingIn Scots law, a judgment creditor's seizure of the debtor's property to satisfy the debt.
- pointA distinct legal proposition or argument; also one percent of the face value of a loan, paid to the lender up front,…
- point of errorA mistake by a lower court put forward as a ground of appeal.
- point of lawA distinct legal proposition at issue in a case.
- point systemA system that assigns points to traffic offenses, so that accumulating a set number within a year automatically suspe…
- point-and-click agreementAn electronic version of a shrink-wrap licence, in which a computer user accepts the terms shown on screen by clickin…
- poison pillA company's defense against an unwanted takeover, giving shareholders the right to buy shares or debt on favorable te…
- poisonous-tree doctrineIn criminal procedure, the rule that evidence obtained from an illegal search, arrest, or interrogation cannot be use…
- policeThe government department charged with keeping public order, promoting public safety, and preventing and detecting cr…
- police blotterThe record a police officer completes on making an arrest, and the running list of a person's arrests.
- police courtA court with jurisdiction over minor criminal offenses and breaches of local regulations.
- police justiceA judicial officer with power to try minor criminal offenses, breaches of police regulations, and the like.
- police magistrateA judicial officer with power to try minor criminal offenses, breaches of police regulations, and the like.
- police officerA peace officer responsible for keeping public order, promoting public safety, and preventing and detecting crime.
- police powerThe inherent power of a state to make all laws needed to protect public safety, order, health, morals, and welfare. I…
- police scienceThe application of scientific methods to police work, such as fingerprinting, ballistics, and forensic chemistry.
- police stateA state whose rulers keep the political, economic, and social life of its people under repressive control, using the…
- policyThe general principles guiding a government in managing public affairs; also a settled course of action adopted for r…
- policy gameA lottery in which bettors choose numbers and place their stakes with a policy writer, the winning numbers being draw…
- policy limitsThe most an insurer will pay on a single claim under a policy.
- policy loanA loan an insurer makes to the policyholder, secured by the policy's cash value.
- policy of insuranceA contract of insurance, and the document setting it out.
- policy of the lawThe principles the legislature or the courts treat as fundamental to the state and to society as a whole. Courts appe…
- policy proof of interestIn insurance law, proof of an insurable interest shown by nothing more than possession of the policy itself.
- policy reserveAn insurer's reserve representing the gap between the net premiums received and the claims expected for a year. Life…
- policy stackingThe adding together of the limits of two or more policies, where the policy's own terms allow it.
- policy valueIn insurance law, the cash a policyholder can obtain by surrendering or cancelling the policy.
- policy yearIn insurance law, the year running from the date the policy takes effect.
- policyholderThe person who owns an insurance policy, whether or not they are the person insured.
- policyownerThe person who owns an insurance policy, whether or not they are the person insured.
- politicalHaving to do with politics or with the conduct of government.
- political assessmentA charge a political party levies on officeholders and candidates to meet the costs of a campaign.
- political asylumProtection given to a political refugee against arrest by another country, or the country or embassy giving it.
- political corporationA corporation the state creates as an agency for carrying on the work of government.
- political correctnessThe doctrine favoring the removal of language and practices that might give offense, above all in matters of race or…
- political crimeA crime aimed at the government, such as treason.
- political economyA social science dealing with the economic problems of government and the relationship between political policy and e…
- political gerrymanderingDividing an area into electoral districts, often of strange shape, so as to give one party an unfair advantage by dil…
- political lawThe study of the principles and conduct of government.
- political libertyA person's freedom to take part in government, above all in making and administering the laws.
- political offenseA crime aimed at a country's security or system of government, such as treason, sedition, or espionage. International…
- political partyAn organization of voters formed to shape what the government does by nominating and electing candidates to office. T…
- political patronageThe power to appoint people to government posts or to hand out other political favors.
- political powerThe power held by a person or body exercising a function of the state: the capacity to influence what the body politi…
- political questionA question a court will not take up because it turns on the exercise of discretion belonging to the executive or the…
- political rightThe right to take part in setting up or running the government, such as the right to vote or to hold office.
- political scienceThe study of the principles and conduct of government.
- political societyA people organized politically, together with the rules by which authority is exercised over them.
- political subdivisionA division of a state existing mainly to carry out some function of local government.
- political trialA trial, above all a prosecution, that one side or both use as a platform for a political cause; also a trial for a p…
- political-action committeeAn organization formed by a special-interest group to raise money and give it to candidates the group believes will f…
- political-question doctrineThe principle that a court should refuse to decide an issue that turns on the exercise of discretion belonging to the…
- politicsThe science of organizing and running the state; also the activity or profession of taking part in public affairs.
- polityThe whole organization of government, seen in terms of its aims and policies; also a politically organized community.
- polity approachA way of settling disputes over church property by examining how the church is organized, deciding whether it is inde…
- pollA sampling of opinion, whether taken at random or from a stated group; also the casting of votes at an election, the…
- poll taxA fixed tax levied on each person within a jurisdiction. The Twenty-Fourth Amendment forbids making payment of such a…
- pollicitationIn contract law, the making of an offer.
- Pollock and MaitlandA leading nineteenth-century history of English law, cited for its account of the medieval common law.
- polluteTo contaminate, above all to foul soil, air, or water with harmful substances.
- pollution exclusionA clause in some commercial general liability policies excluding cover for injury or damage arising from the discharg…
- polyandryHaving more than one husband at a time.
- polyarchyGovernment by many people.
- polygamistA person who has more than one spouse at a time.
- polygamyBeing married to more than one spouse at the same time.
- polygarchyGovernment by many people.
- polygraphA device that tries to gauge truthfulness by recording involuntary bodily changes during questioning. Its results are…
- polygynyHaving more than one wife at a time.
- poneAn original writ used to move an action from an inferior court, such as a manorial or county court, into a superior o…
- pone per vadiumFormerly, a writ commanding the sheriff to compel a defendant who had ignored an earlier writ, by attaching some of t…
- ponendis in assisisFormerly, a writ directing the sheriff to empanel a jury for an assize or real action.
- ponendo sigillum ad exceptionemA writ requiring a judge to put a seal to a bill of exceptions, so that a point reserved at trial could be carried up…
- ponendum in balliumFormerly, a writ ordering that a prisoner be admitted to bail.
- ponit loco suoPuts in his place: words once used in a power of attorney.
- ponit se super patriamFormerly, a defendant's plea of not guilty, putting themselves upon the country for trial.
- pontiffIn Roman law, a member of the college of priests; in modern usage, the Pope.
- Ponzi schemeA fraudulent investment scheme in which money from later investors is used to pay artificially high returns to the ea…
- poolAn association of people or firms who put resources together for a joint undertaking, above all in buying or selling…
- poolingIn oil-and-gas law, the joining of small tracts into an area large enough to obtain a well permit under the spacing r…
- pooling agreementAn agreement among shareholders that their shares will all be voted together as a block.
- pooling of interestsA method of accounting for a merger under which the acquired company's assets are carried on the buyer's books at the…
- popIn telecommunications, a measure of a mobile operator's potential customer base: the population of an area multiplied…
- Poppean lawA Roman statute of the early empire encouraging marriage and childbearing by penalizing the unmarried and childless i…
- popular actionAn action a private person brings on the public's behalf, taking a share of whatever penalty is recovered.
- popular electionAn election by the people as a whole rather than by a selected group.
- popular justiceJustice as the crowd would have it: rough justice that satisfies prevailing public feeling but is generally thought t…
- populusThe people: the whole body of Roman citizens, patrician and plebeian alike.
- porcupine provisionA clause in a company's charter or bylaws designed to make a takeover impossible without the board's consent.
- pork-barrel legislationLegislation that steers money or resources to projects in one legislator's district, such as a highway or a post offi…
- pornographicDepicting sexual activity in a way designed to arouse.
- pornographyMaterial such as writing, photographs, or film depicting sexual activity in a way meant to arouse. It is protected sp…
- portA harbor where ships load and unload; also any place where people and goods may enter a country and where customs off…
- port authorityA state or federal agency that regulates traffic through a port, or that builds and maintains airports, bridges, toll…
- port of callA port at which a ship stops in the course of a voyage.
- port of deliveryThe port where a voyage ends and the ship unloads her cargo.
- port of departureThe port from which a vessel sets out on a voyage.
- port of destinationThe port at which a voyage is to end, generally including any stopping places where the ship takes on or lands cargo.
- port of dischargeThe place where a substantial part of the cargo is unloaded.
- port of entryA place where people and goods may lawfully enter a country and where customs officers are stationed.
- port tollA duty paid for bringing goods into a port.
- port-risk insuranceInsurance on a vessel while it lies in port.
- portable businessA law practice a lawyer can carry from one firm or city to another with little loss of clients.
- portfolioThe securities and other investments an investor holds at a given time, usually spread across several kinds so as to…
- portfolio incomeIncome from interest, dividends, rents, royalties, capital gains, or other investments. It does not count as passive…
- portionA share or allotted part, as of an estate.
- portoriumA tax or toll levied at a port or at a city's gates; also a toll for crossing a bridge.
- portsaleA public sale of goods to the highest bidder: an auction.
- portwardenAn official responsible for running a port.
- positionThe size of a person's holding in a particular security or market.
- position of the United StatesThe legal stance the federal government takes in a case under the Equal Access to Justice Act. Whether that stance wa…
- positive actSomething actually done, as opposed to a failure to act.
- positive conditionA condition requiring some act to be done, such as paying rent.
- positive covenantA covenant requiring a party to do something, such as putting up a fence within a set time.
- positive dutyA duty requiring a person to do some definite act, or to keep doing something.
- positive easementAn easement requiring the owner of the burdened land to allow the easement holder to do certain things, such as disch…
- positive evidenceEvidence resting on a witness's own knowledge or observation which, if believed, proves a fact without the need to in…
- positive externalityA side effect of someone's activity that benefits another without payment, such as the gain to a neighborhood when a…
- positive fraudConcealment or a false statement, in words or conduct, that harms someone who relies on it.
- positive justiceJustice as the civil law or other human law conceives and imperfectly expresses it.
- positive lawLaw laid down and enforced within a particular political community by those in authority, as opposed to moral law or…
- positive misprisionThe active commission of a wrongful act, as opposed to merely concealing one.
- positive noticeActual notice of a fact brought straight to a party's attention.
- positive prescriptionThe acquiring of a right, above all over land, by long and uninterrupted use or possession.
- positive proofDirect proof of a fact, resting on evidence that establishes it without inference.
- positive reprisalA reprisal in which a nation forcibly seizes another's property or people.
- positive rightA right that someone else do some act for the holder's benefit.
- positive servitudeA servitude obliging the owner of the burdened land to allow the holder to do something on it, as opposed to one that…
- positive testimonyTestimony about whether something happened, resting on what the witness actually saw or heard at the time and place.
- positive wrongA breach of one's legal duty, or a violation of another's legal right.
- positivismThe doctrine that real knowledge comes only from observable facts, not from speculation.
- positivist jurisprudenceA theory denying that anything counts as law unless it comes from a sovereign or some other identifiable source with…
- positivisticHaving to do with legal positivism.
- positivistic jurisprudenceA theory that denies the validity of any rule not derived from, or sanctioned by, a sovereign or some other determina…
- posseIn potential: capable of existing, as opposed to already existing in fact. The word also means power or ability.
- Posse comitatusThe body of citizens a sheriff may call on for help in keeping the peace or making an arrest.
- possessTo have something in one's actual control.
- possessionHolding property in one's power and exercising control over it; also the right to control something to the exclusion…
- possession in factActual possession, whether or not the law recognizes it as such. An employee's holding of the employer's property, fo…
- possession in lawPossession the law recognizes, either because it is a particular kind of actual possession or because the law attribu…
- possession of a rightThe actual continuing exercise and enjoyment of a right, as opposed to the ownership of it.
- possession unityThe requirement that each joint tenant be entitled to possession of the whole property.
- possessorA person who has possession of something.
- possessor bona fideA possessor who honestly believes that no one else has a better right to the thing.
- possessor mala fideA possessor who knows that someone else has a better right to the thing.
- possessoriumAn action to recover or protect possession, without settling who owns the property.
- possessory actionAn action to recover or protect possession, without settling who owns the property.
- possessory claimThe claim of someone who has filed a declaratory statement over public land but has not yet paid for it.
- possessory conservatorIn some states, the parent who does not have primary custody of a child but has a right to possession of them at set…
- possessory estateAn estate giving the holder the right to possess the property, whether or not they own it.
- possessory interdictAn interdict protecting a tenant who had been put out of possession or threatened with disturbance. Such interdicts w…
- possessory interestThe present right to control property and to exclude others from it, held by someone who need not be the owner; also…
- possessory lienA lien letting the creditor keep the property until the debt is paid. The right to hold may or may not come with a po…
- possessory warrantA process resembling a search warrant by which a civil claimant may search for and recover property wrongfully taken.
- possibilityA chance that an interest in property may arise in future, which is not itself a present right.
- possibility coupled with an interestAn expectation the law recognizes as an estate or interest, as with an executory devise or a shifting or springing us…
- possibility of reverterThe interest a grantor keeps after conveying a fee simple determinable, under which the estate ends automatically and…
- possibility on a possibilityA possibility depending on another possibility, so remote that the law will not recognize it as an interest.
- POSSLQA person of the opposite sex sharing living quarters. The phrase was meant to catch an unmarried partner or roommate,…
- postTo announce something by putting up a notice in a public place; also to transfer accounting entries to a ledger, to p…
- post auditAn audit of money spent on a finished capital project, to judge how efficiently it was spent and to compare the cash…
- post bailTo put up security for one's appearance in court.
- post disseisinaA writ by which someone who had already recovered land from a disseisor could recover it again after the same disseis…
- post hocAfter this; also describing the fallacy of treating something as the cause of what merely followed it.
- post-answer default judgmentA judgment for the claimant entered after the defendant has filed an answer but then fails to appear at trial or to d…
- post-factumAn act done afterwards: something occurring after the event in question.
- post-fineA fee once paid to the Crown on levying a fine of land, over and above the original payment.
- post-noteA banknote payable at a future date rather than on demand.
- post-obit bondAn agreement by which a borrower promises to pay the lender a lump sum, larger than the amount advanced, on the death…
- post-terminal sittingA court sitting held after the ordinary term has ended.
- postal currencySmall-denomination paper money issued during the Civil War, printed with images of postage stamps.
- postconviction-relief proceedingA state or federal procedure by which a prisoner asks a court to set aside or correct a conviction or sentence after…
- postdateTo put on an instrument, such as a check, a date later than the day it is actually signed.
- postdated checkA check dated later than the day it was written, payable on or after that date.
- posteaA formal statement endorsed on a nisi prius record giving an account of what happened at the trial.
- posted waterA body of water reserved for the exclusive use of the owner of the surrounding land, who marks it by posting notices…
- posterioresDescendants in the direct line beyond the sixth degree.
- posteriorityComing later in time. The word was once used of a tenant holding of two or more lords, the older tenancy being held b…
- posterityFuture generations taken together; also all of a person's descendants however remote.
- postglossatorsItalian jurists of the 14th and 15th centuries who wrote commentaries relating Roman law to feudal and Germanic law,…
- posthumousHappening after death, above all of a child born after the father has died.
- posthumous childA child born after the father's death.
- posthumous workIn copyright law, a work whose author died before it was published.
- postingIn accounting, the transferring of an entry to a ledger. The word also names the mailing of a letter, a method of ser…
- postjudgment discoveryDiscovery carried out after judgment, usually to find out what assets the judgment debtor has or to secure testimony…
- postliminiumIn Roman and civil law, the doctrine that restoring a person's lost rights or status relates back to the time of the…
- postmanA barrister in the Court of Exchequer who had precedence in making motions, so called from the post beside which he s…
- postmarkThe official mark a post office puts on an item of mail, cancelling the stamp and showing where and when it was sent…
- postmasterA Postal Service official in charge of a local post office.
- postmortemDone or occurring after death.
- postnuptialMade or occurring after marriage.
- postnuptial agreementAn agreement made after marriage setting out each spouse's property rights on death or divorce.
- postponeTo put something off to a later time; also to place a claim lower in priority, as by subordinating one lien to another.
- posttrial discoveryDiscovery carried out after judgment, usually to find out what assets the judgment debtor has or to preserve testimon…
- posttrial motionA motion made after judgment is entered, such as a motion for a new trial.
- postulatioIn church law, a petition asking that a bishop be transferred.
- potentateA ruler holding great power: a monarch.
- potentialCapable of coming into being.
- potential Pareto superiorityA change in the allocation of resources that benefits the winner more than it harms the loser, so that in principle t…
- potestasIn Roman law, authority or power, such as a magistrate's power to enforce the law or a master's authority over a slave.
- potestative conditionIn civil law, a condition that will be met only if the party bound chooses to meet it. Louisiana has dropped the term…
- poundA place where impounded property or stray animals are kept until redeemed; also a measure of weight of sixteen ounces…
- pound of landAn uncertain quantity of land, usually reckoned at about 52 acres.
- pound sterlingThe basic monetary unit of the United Kingdom, divided into 100 pence.
- pound-breachThe offense of breaking open a pound to take out something that has been impounded.
- poundage feeA percentage commission allowed to a sheriff on money recovered under process such as execution or attachment.
- pour acquitIn French law, the words a creditor adds when signing a receipt, acknowledging payment.
- pour faire proclaimerA writ to the mayor or bailiff of a town requiring them to make a public proclamation about some matter, such as a nu…
- pour outInformally, to deny a claimant any damages or relief.
- pour seisir terresFormerly, a writ by which the Crown could seize land held in dower by the widow of a tenant in chief who remarried wi…
- pourover trustA trust made during the settlor's life that receives property from their will when they die, usually whatever is left…
- pourover willA will that leaves money or property to a trust already in existence.
- pourpartyA share of an estate allotted to a coparcener on a division.
- pourprestureAn encroachment on public rights by taking to private use what belongs to the public, such as building on a highway.
- povertyThe condition of being poor: a want of the means of subsistence.
- poverty affidavitAn affidavit by someone too poor to pay, seeking public assistance, an appointed lawyer, a waiver of court fees, or o…
- Powell doctrineThe rule that a conspiracy to commit an act that is unlawful but not itself wrong is punishable only where the agreem…
- powerThe ability to act or refrain from acting; also control or influence over another. In law it means the authority to a…
- power appendantA power that lets the holder appoint estates carved out of their own interest, so that exercising it cuts down what t…
- power coupled with an interestA power to do something, given along with an interest in the subject matter. It is not held for the principal's benef…
- power given as securityA power given along with an interest in the subject matter, which cannot be revoked because it secures the holder's o…
- power in grossA power held by someone who has an interest in the property but whose own interest is untouched by exercising it, as…
- power of acceptanceAn offeree's power to bind the offeror to a contract by accepting the offer.
- power of alienationThe capacity to sell, transfer, assign, or otherwise dispose of property.
- power of appointmentA power given by will or deed allowing the holder to choose who is to take the donor's property or income.
- power of attorneyA document authorizing someone to act as another's agent, and the authority so given.
- power of revocationA power a person keeps in a document, such as a trust, to undo the arrangement they created.
- power of saleA power to sell the property the power relates to.
- power of terminationThe interest a grantor keeps after conveying a fee simple subject to a condition subsequent, under which the estate e…
- power over oneselfThe control a person has over their own actions and affairs, as opposed to authority over anyone else.
- power over other personsAuthority to act so as to affect another person's legal position, as an agent does for a principal.
- power politicsIn international law, an approach to foreign policy in which a country uses its economic and above all military stren…
- power-delegating lawA law that confers authority on someone to make or change legal rules, as opposed to one that simply imposes a duty.
- power-of-appointment trustA trust used to qualify property for the marital deduction, under which property is held for the surviving spouse, th…
- power-of-sale clauseA clause in a mortgage or deed of trust letting the lender or trustee sell the property without going to court if the…
- power-of-sale foreclosureA way of foreclosing in which, under the mortgage document and a state statute, the property is sold at a public sale…
- PPIIn insurance law, proof of an insurable interest shown by nothing more than possession of the policy itself.
- PPOA preferred-provider organization: a group of doctors, hospitals, and pharmacies that agree to supply medical service…
- Ppossessory actionAn action to obtain, recover, or keep possession of property without deciding title to it, such as evicting a tenant…
- PRThe business of building and keeping a company's good public image; also that image itself.
- practicableReasonably capable of being done: feasible.
- practicably irrigable acreageLand that can be irrigated over the long term at a reasonable cost.
- practiceThe procedural methods and rules used in a court; also the professional work of a licensed lawyer.
- practice actA statute governing practice and procedure in the courts, usually supplemented by rules of court.
- practice bookA book devoted to the procedure of a particular court or class of courts, usually including its rules, forms, and pra…
- practice courtAn ancillary court of the King's Bench that checked whether bail sureties were good for the sums pledged and dealt wi…
- practice of lawThe professional work of a licensed lawyer: conducting cases in court, drawing the papers needed for transactions fro…
- practickIn Scots law, a precedent that carries weight without necessarily binding.
- practitionerA person engaged in the practice of a profession, above all law or medicine.
- praeceptoresFormerly, the chief clerks of Chancery, who prepared the remedial writs.
- praecipeAt common law, a writ ordering a defendant either to do something or to explain why they have not; also a written req…
- praecipe quod reddatFormerly, a writ directing the defendant to give back certain property. An action for common recovery often began wit…
- praecipitiumThe punishment of throwing a criminal from the Tarpeian rock.
- praedialConsisting of, relating to, or attached to land.
- praedictusAforesaid. In pleading it usually referred to a defendant, a town, or land, while other words were used for the claim…
- praediumIn Roman law, land or an estate.
- praefatusAforesaid: used in pleading of a person who is not a party.
- praefecturaThe office of a prefect; also the town or territory a prefect administers.
- praefectus vigiliumThe prefect of the watch: the officer commanding Rome's fire brigade and night police, who also tried offenses such a…
- praefineA fee payable to the Crown on suing out a writ of praecipe to begin a conveyance by fine.
- praejuramentumFormerly, a preparatory oath, taken before the principal one.
- praelegatumA legacy given in advance of the whole or part of the share an heir would take out of the inheritance, much like an a…
- praemium emancipationisA payment Constantine allowed a father on freeing a child from his authority, being a third of the property the child…
- praemunireThe offense of obeying an authority other than the Crown, above all of appealing to Rome. It grew out of Edward I's e…
- praenomenIn Roman law, the first of a person's three names, marking them off from the other members of the family.
- praepositusAn officer ranking next below the alderman of a hundred; also the steward or bailiff of an estate.
- praepositus villaeThe constable of a town.
- praerogativa regisA declaration made in the reign of Edward I setting out certain feudal and political rights of the Crown, including w…
- praescriptioIn Roman law, the opening part of a formula that defined the scope of the action or raised an objection to it; also a…
- praesesIn Roman law, the governor of a province.
- praestareTo perform an obligation, or to take liability on oneself.
- praesumitur pro neganteIt is presumed for the negative: the rule that where the votes are equal, the motion fails.
- praesumptioA presumption.
- praesumptio fortiorA strong presumption of fact, weighty enough to shift the burden of proof to the other side.
- praesumptio hominisA presumption drawn by the individual judge from the facts, unconstrained by any rule.
- praesumptio jurisA presumption of law: one the law makes until it is disproved.
- praesumptio MucianaIn Roman law, the rebuttable presumption that anything a married woman held had been given to her by her husband, nam…
- praeteritioA testator's passing over of an heir, leaving them out of the will without expressly disinheriting them.
- praetorIn Roman law, the magistrate who identified and framed the legal issues in a case and then directed a lay judge to he…
- praetor fidei-commissariusA praetor with jurisdiction over cases involving trusts.
- praetorian edictIn Roman law, one of the yearly proclamations by which incoming praetors set out the legal rules they would apply in…
- praevaricatorA liar or equivocator; in Roman law, a person who betrays another's trust, such as an advocate who secretly helps the…
- pratiqueA licence allowing a ship to trade in a port after meeting quarantine requirements or showing a clean bill of health.
- praxisPractice as opposed to theory: the doing of a thing rather than the study of it.
- prayer for reliefA request at the end of a pleading asking the court for particular relief or damages.
- prayer in aidA plea by a life tenant or other holder of less than a fee simple, asking that someone with a further interest in the…
- prayer of processThe closing part of a bill in equity asking that a subpoena issue if the defendant does not answer.
- preambleAn opening statement in a constitution, statute, or other document explaining its basis and purpose, above all a reci…
- preappointed evidenceEvidence laid down in advance, as by statute, as the way of proving certain facts.
- preaudienceThe right of a senior barrister to be heard in court ahead of juniors.
- prebankruptcyOccurring before a bankruptcy petition is filed.
- prebendA stipend paid out of a cathedral's endowment to support a member of its chapter; also the property that produces the…
- prebendaryA member of a cathedral's staff who receives a stipend from its endowment.
- precariaeDays of labor that tenants of certain manors owed their lord at harvest time.
- precariousDepending on another's will or pleasure, and so uncertain.
- precarious loanA loan the lender may call in at any time; also a loan at risk of not being repaid.
- precarious rightA right enjoyed at another's pleasure, which may be withdrawn at any time.
- precarious tradeIn international law, trade a neutral country carries on between two warring powers, which continues only so long as…
- precariumIn Roman law, property lent to be returned whenever the lender asks; in later usage, a tenure resting on such a grant…
- precatoryOf words, requesting or expressing a wish rather than commanding, as with a direction that it is the writer's "wish a…
- precatory trustA trust the law recognizes so as to carry out the wishes of a testator or grantor, even though the words used were a…
- precedenceGoing before: the order of priority observed among people of different rank on ceremonial occasions. The word also na…
- precedentA decided case that furnishes a rule for later cases raising the same point.
- precedent sub silentioA point that a decision passes over in silence, having been neither argued nor considered, so that the decision is we…
- precedentialOf a decision, carrying authority as a precedent for later cases.
- preceptA rule of conduct or principle; also a written order from an authorized person requiring someone to act, such as a ju…
- precesIn Roman law, a petition addressed to the emperor by a private person.
- precinctA geographical unit of government, such as an election district, a police district, or a judicial district.
- precipeA written request asking the court to take some step, such as setting a case for trial or entering judgment.
- precisA concise summary of a text’s essential points.
- precludi non debetFormerly, the opening words of a claimant's reply to a plea in bar, objecting to being shut out from maintaining the…
- preclusion orderAn order barring a litigant from putting forward or resisting certain claims or defenses because they failed to obey…
- precompounded prescription drugA drug that passes from the manufacturer to the pharmacist and on to the consumer without any change in its form.
- preconceived maliceThe state of mind required for murder at common law: an intent to kill, an intent to do grievous bodily harm, extreme…
- precontractA contract that stops a party from making a similar agreement with anyone else.
- predateTo put an earlier date on something than the true one; also to come before something in time.
- predatory intentIn antitrust law, a business's intention to injure a competitor by unfair means, above all by giving up revenue in or…
- predatory pricingUnlawful pricing below cost, meant to drive particular competitors out in the short run and reduce competition in the…
- predeceaseTo die before someone else.
- predecessorA person who held an office or position before another; also an ancestor.
- predecisionalOccurring before a decision is made.
- predialConsisting of, relating to, or attached to land.
- predial servitudeA servitude that burdens one piece of land for the benefit of another, so that it passes with the land rather than be…
- predicate actUnder the racketeering laws, one of two or more related criminal acts needed to establish a pattern.
- predicate factA fact that a presumption or inference is built on.
- prediction theoryThe view that the best test of what the law is lies in how a bad person would see it, since such a person will calcul…
- predictive theory of lawThe view that the law is nothing more than a prediction of what the courts will in fact decide, which Holmes summed u…
- predispositionA person's readiness to engage in a particular activity, which defeats a criminal defendant's claim of entrapment.
- preemptionThe right to buy something ahead of others, and a purchase made under that right; also the settling of public land so…
- preemption claimantA person who has settled on land open to preemption, honestly intending to acquire title to it.
- preemption rightThe right to take priority over others in claiming land open to preemption, arising from having actually settled on it.
- preemptive rightA shareholder's right to buy newly issued shares, before they are offered to anyone else, in proportion to their exis…
- preexisting conditionIn insurance law, a physical or mental condition already present before a health policy takes effect. Cover for later…
- preexisting dutyA duty a person is already legally bound to perform.
- preexisting-duty ruleIn contract law, the rule that a party who does, or promises to do, only what they are already bound to do suffers no…
- prefectA senior official put in charge of a particular command, department, or region; in New Mexico, a probate judge.
- preferTo put something forward for consideration, above all for a grand jury to bring a charge; also to give one creditor p…
- preferenceFavoring one person or thing over another; also the priority of payment a debtor gives one creditor over the rest, an…
- preference sharesA class of stock whose holder has a prior claim to dividends and to assets on a winding up, but usually no vote.
- preferential assignmentIn bankruptcy, a transfer an insolvent debtor makes to or for a creditor before bankruptcy, letting that creditor tak…
- preferential debtA debt the law requires to be paid before others, such as wages owed to an employee.
- preferential ruleIn the law of evidence, a rule preferring one kind of evidence to another, whether by refusing to look at the weaker…
- preferential shopA workplace where union members are given preference over non-members in hiring and other employment matters.
- preferential tariffA tariff that favors the goods of one country over another's.
- preferential transferIn bankruptcy law, a transfer an insolvent debtor makes to or for a creditor before filing, which lets that creditor…
- preferredGiven a priority or privilege over others.
- preferred creditorA creditor with a better right to payment than others, such as one holding a perfected security interest as against a…
- preferred dividendA dividend paid to preferred shareholders, generally at a fixed rate and ahead of anything paid to common shareholders.
- preferred docketA list of cases set for trial in order of priority. Criminal cases usually come before civil ones because of the cons…
- preferred stockA class of stock whose holder has a prior claim to dividends and to assets on a winding up, but usually no vote.
- preferred-provider organizationA group of doctors, hospitals, and pharmacies that agree to supply medical services at reduced cost to those covered…
- preferring of chargesIn military law, the formal completion of a charge sheet by signing and swearing to the charges and specifications. O…
- prehearing conferenceAn optional conference on appeal to discuss procedural and substantive matters, usually held in complex civil, crimin…
- prejudiceDamage to a person's legal rights or claims.
- prejudicial errorAn error that affects a party's substantive rights or the outcome of the case, and so is a ground for reversal where…
- prejudicial publicityHeavy media coverage of an upcoming trial. Under the Due Process Clause, such coverage may deprive a criminal defenda…
- preliminaryComing before, and usually leading up to, the main part of something.
- preliminary complaintA complaint a court issues to bring a criminal suspect before it for a hearing on probable cause or on whether to sen…
- preliminary crimeA step toward committing another crime, serious enough in itself to be punished. Attempt, conspiracy, and solicitatio…
- preliminary evidenceEvidence needed to begin a hearing or trial, which may be received conditionally in anticipation of further evidence…
- preliminary hearingA criminal hearing, usually before a magistrate, to decide whether there is enough evidence to prosecute. If there is…
- preliminary injunctionA temporary injunction granted before or during trial to prevent irreparable harm before the court can decide the cas…
- preliminary inquiryIn military law, the first investigation of a reported or suspected breach of the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
- preliminary letterA request inviting offers, sent as a preliminary step toward making a contract.
- preliminary objectionIn international law, an objection before an international tribunal which, if upheld, would make further proceedings…
- preliminary proofIn insurance, the first proof of loss a claimant supplies, enough to open the claim before fuller proof is furnished.
- preliminary prospectusA printed document describing the main features of a business, above all a securities offering, given to prospective…
- preliminary statementThe opening part of a brief or memorandum, in which the advocate sums up the substance of what follows. A few jurisdi…
- preliminary warrantA warrant to bring a person before a court for a preliminary hearing on probable cause.
- preliminary-inquiry officerIn military law, the officer who conducts a preliminary inquiry.
- premarital agreementAn agreement made before marriage, usually settling questions of support and the division of property if the marriage…
- prematurityThe state of affairs where the facts behind a claimant's complaint do not yet give rise to a live claim; also the def…
- premeditatedDone with deliberation and planning, having been thought over beforehand.
- premeditated maliceThe state of mind required for murder at common law: an intent to kill, an intent to do grievous bodily harm, extreme…
- premeditationDeliberate thought and planning before an act, above all before a crime.
- premier serjeantThe serjeant given the first right of audience by royal letters patent.
- premiseA statement from which a conclusion is drawn.
- premisesMatters, usually preliminary facts, already referred to in the same document; also a house or building with its grounds.
- premises liabilityA landowner's or occupier's liability in tort for the state of the premises or for what goes on there.
- premises ruleThe rule that workers' compensation covers injuries an employee suffers on the employer's premises while arriving at…
- premiumThe payment required to keep an insurance policy in force; also any sum paid above a normal price or value.
- premium bondA bond selling above its face or redemption value.
- premium loanA loan an insurer makes to the policyholder so that further premiums can be paid, secured by the policy's reserve value.
- premium noteA promissory note an insured gives the insurer for part or all of a premium.
- premium on capital stockThe surplus arising from selling, exchanging, or issuing capital stock above its par value.
- premium rateIn insurance law, the price per unit of cover, usually stated as a cost per thousand dollars insured. Life insurers w…
- premium stockStock that carries an extra charge to trade, as where it is hard to borrow for short selling.
- premium taxA state tax an insurer pays on the premiums it collects.
- prenatal tortA tort committed against a child before birth. A child born alive may sue for injuries caused before birth. The phras…
- prender de baronA plea that a murder victim's widow may not bring an appeal of murder against the alleged killer because she has sinc…
- prenupAn agreement made before marriage, usually settling questions of support and the division of property if the marriage…
- prenuptialMade or occurring before marriage.
- prenuptial agreementAn agreement made before marriage, usually settling questions of support and the division of property if the marriage…
- prenuptial giftA gift made in contemplation of a marriage, which may fail if the marriage does not take place.
- prenuptial willA will made before marriage. At common law marriage automatically revoked it, but modern statutes usually provide tha…
- prepaid expenseAn expense, such as rent, interest, or insurance, paid before it falls due or before the service is provided.
- prepaid incomeMoney received before it has been earned.
- prepaid interestInterest paid before the period it covers has run.
- prepaid legal servicesAn arrangement, usually offered as an employee benefit, under which legal services are paid for in advance by regular…
- preparationDevising the means needed to commit a crime, short of attempting it.
- prepayment clauseA clause in a loan document letting the borrower pay the debt off before it falls due, usually without penalty.
- prepayment penaltyA charge made against a borrower who pays a loan off before it is due.
- prepetitionOccurring before a petition is filed, above all in bankruptcy.
- preponderanceGreater weight, importance, or influence.
- preponderance of the evidenceThe greater weight of the evidence: enough to tip a fair and impartial mind to one side, though not enough to remove…
- prerogativeAn exclusive right, power, or privilege, usually attaching to an office.
- prerogative courtIn New Jersey, a probate court.
- prerogative writA writ issued by a court exercising an unusual or discretionary power, such as certiorari, habeas corpus, mandamus, o…
- presNear: used in the phrase cy pres, meaning as near as may be to the giver's intention.
- presaleThe sale of property, such as condominium units, before building has begun.
- prescribableOf a right, capable of being acquired by long use.
- prescriptionThe effect of lapse of time in creating rights and destroying them.
- prescriptive easementAn easement created by open, hostile, and continuous use over the period the statute fixes.
- prescriptive rightA right acquired by long use.
- presence of the courtThe presence of the judge or another court officer. For contempt, an act is in the court's presence if it happens wit…
- presence-of-defendant ruleThe rule that a defendant charged with a felony is entitled to be present at every important stage of the proceedings.
- presence-of-the-testator ruleThe rule that a testator must be aware, by sight or otherwise, that the witnesses are signing the will. Many places r…
- presentExisting now, or the one under consideration; also in attendance.
- present abilityThe actual, immediate power to do something, especially to commit a crime.
- present caseThe case the court is dealing with at the moment.
- present conveyanceA conveyance meant to take effect immediately rather than at some later time.
- present covenantA covenant that can be broken only at the moment of conveyance. There are three: the covenant against encumbrances, t…
- present enjoymentThe immediate possession and use of an estate.
- present estateAn estate in immediate possession, vested now, as opposed to a future estate.
- present interestAn interest whose enjoyment or possession is present rather than future, entitling the holder to possession now.
- present recollection refreshedIn the law of evidence, a witness's memory revived by being shown a document describing the events. The document is o…
- present saleA sale in which title passes at once on the making of the contract, rather than at some later time.
- present sense impressionIn the law of evidence, a person's description of an event formed while perceiving it or immediately afterwards. Such…
- present useA use that exists now and is executed by the Statute of Uses.
- present valueThe sum that, with compound interest, would grow to a stated amount by a stated future date: a future sum discounted…
- presentationThe delivery of a document to an issuer or named person so as to start action under a letter of credit. In older chur…
- presentence hearingA hearing at which the judge or jury receives all relevant information about a convicted person and the offense befor…
- presentence investigation reportA probation officer's detailed account of a convicted defendant's education, criminal record, family, and background,…
- presenterIn commercial law, a person who presents a document, such as a draft, to an issuer for honor.
- presenting bankA bank other than the paying bank that presents a negotiable instrument for payment.
- presenting juryA body of people, often 23, sworn to sit for a month or more who decide in private whether the evidence is strong eno…
- presentmentThe laying of a formal statement before a court or tribunal; also a formal written accusation a grand jury returns on…
- presentment for acceptanceThe producing of an instrument to the drawee, acceptor, or maker for acceptance. It may be made any time before matur…
- presentment for paymentThe producing of an instrument to the drawee, acceptor, or maker for payment, which must be done on the day it falls…
- presentment of EnglishryProof that a slain person was English rather than a Dane or, after 1066, a Norman. The conquerors required it, so tha…
- presentment warrantyAn implied promise about the title to and genuineness of an instrument, made to the payor or acceptor when it is pres…
- presentsThe document now under consideration, as in the old phrase "know all men by these presents."
- presideTo occupy the place of authority, above all as the judge at a hearing or trial.
- presidentThe chief executive of a government, or the head of state; also the chief executive officer of a company or other org…
- president judgeA judge in charge of a particular court or district, above all the senior active judge on a panel.
- president of a court-martialIn military law, the senior member in rank present at a court-martial.
- President of the United StatesThe highest executive officer of the federal government, elected to a four-year term by the presidential electors cho…
- presidential electorA member of the electoral college chosen to cast a state's votes for President and Vice President.
- Presidential messageA communication from the President to Congress on the state of the union, above all on matters needing legislation.
- presiding judgeThe judge in charge of a particular court or district, above all the senior active judge on a three-member panel hear…
- presiding jurorThe juror who chairs the jury's deliberations and speaks for it in court in announcing the verdict, usually chosen by…
- presiding officerThe president of a special court-martial that sits without a military judge; where there is a military judge, that ju…
- pressThe news media: print and broadcast news organizations taken together.
- prestFormerly, a duty payable by a sheriff on accounting at the Exchequer, or on money remaining in the sheriff’s hands.
- prest moneyA payment made to a soldier or sailor on enlistment.
- prestationA payment of money; also the rendering of a service.
- presumeTo take something as true in the absence of proof to the contrary.
- presumed fatherThe man the law takes to be a child's father for any of several reasons: because he was married to the child's natura…
- presumed-seller testA test for product liability asking whether a maker who knew everything about the product's dangers would have been n…
- presumptionAn inference the law draws that a fact exists, from the proven existence of some other fact. Most presumptions requir…
- presumption juris et de jureA presumption no evidence can displace, so that once the basic facts are proved the conclusion follows as a matter of…
- presumption of deathThe presumption that a person who disappears unexpectedly and stays absent for a long period, commonly seven years, h…
- presumption of factA rebuttable presumption the factfinder may draw from other established facts, but which the law does not compel.
- presumption of general applicationA presumption that applies to all legislation alike, so that lawmakers need not repeat it in every bill.
- presumption of innocenceThe principle that no one may be convicted unless the prosecution proves guilt beyond reasonable doubt, the accused b…
- presumption of intentA presumption the factfinder may draw, that a person who did an act meant to do it.
- presumption of lawA conclusion the law requires a court to draw once certain facts are established and no evidence to the contrary is p…
- presumption of legitimacyThe presumption that the husband of a woman who gives birth is the child's father.
- presumption of natural and probable consequencesIn criminal law, the presumption that a person intended the natural and probable consequences of what they did, from…
- presumption of regularityA presumption that a public officer has acted regularly and in accordance with duty.
- presumption of survivorshipThe presumption that one of several people who died in a common disaster outlived the others, drawn from the survivor…
- presumption of validityIn patent law, the rule that a granted patent is taken to be valid, so that anyone challenging it must prove invalidi…
- presumption-of-fertility ruleThe fiction, applied under the rule against perpetuities, that a woman may bear a child so long as she is alive, howe…
- presumption-of-identity ruleThe common-law rule that, absent proof of another state's statute, a court will presume the common law there develope…
- presumptiveGiving reasonable grounds for belief; also resting on a presumption.
- presumptive authorityAuthority arising from the principal's conduct, such as having gone along with the agent's actions in the past.
- presumptive damagesDamages awarded on top of compensation where the defendant acted recklessly, maliciously, or deceitfully, meant to pu…
- presumptive deathDeath inferred from a person's long and unexplained absence, usually after seven years.
- presumptive evidenceEvidence taken as true and sufficient unless other evidence discredits it. In older usage the phrase meant circumstan…
- presumptive heirA person who would inherit if the intestate died at once, but who may be displaced by the birth of a nearer relative.
- presumptive noticeNotice inferred from facts a person had the means of knowing, and so treated as known to them.
- presumptive proofA fact that counts as proof so long as no other fact is put forward to disprove it.
- presumptive sentenceThe standard sentence for an offense, above all one set by sentencing guidelines, which may be raised or lowered for…
- presumptive titleA title of the lowest order, resting on nothing but occupation or bare possession without any right or claim of right.
- presumptive trustA trust the law imposes where property is transferred in circumstances suggesting that the transferor did not mean th…
- pretaxExisting or occurring before tax is assessed or deducted.
- pretax earningsNet earnings before income taxes are taken off.
- prete-nomA person who lends their name to a transaction so that another’s interest in it stays hidden.
- preterlegalRarely, beyond the range of what is lawful.
- pretermissionThe position of someone left out, as an heir omitted from a will; also the act of omitting them.
- pretermission statuteA statute giving an heir left out of a will the right to a share of the estate, usually by treating them as though th…
- pretermitTo leave out on purpose; also to overlook by accident.
- pretermitted childA child left out of a parent's will, whom a statute may still entitle to a share of the estate.
- pretermitted defenseA defense that a party must plead at the proper time or lose.
- pretermitted heirAn heir the testator left out of the will, whom a statute may nonetheless entitle to a share of the estate.
- pretermitted spouseA spouse left out of a will, usually one married after the will was made, whom a statute may still entitle to a share.
- pretermitted-heir statuteA statute giving an heir left out of a will the right to a share of the estate, usually by treating them as though th…
- pretextA false or weak reason put forward to hide the real one.
- pretextual arrestAn arrest for a minor offense made in order to investigate someone's part in a more serious one, where there are no l…
- pretium affectionisThe extra value an owner puts on a thing out of sentiment or attachment. It is not used as a measure of damages.
- pretium periculiThe price of the risk, such as the premium paid on an insurance policy.
- pretorial courtA colonial court in Maryland with jurisdiction over capital crimes, made up of the lord proprietary or his lieutenant…
- pretrial conferenceAn informal meeting shortly before trial at which the lawyers, usually with the judge, work toward disposing of the c…
- pretrial detentionThe holding of a defendant before trial, either because bail could not be raised or because release was refused.
- pretrial discoveryDiscovery carried out before trial to bring out the facts and develop the evidence. Modern rules have widened it so t…
- pretrial diversionA program that sends certain defendants, before trial, to community schemes for job training, education, and the like…
- pretrial hearingAn informal meeting shortly before trial at which the lawyers, usually with the judge, work toward disposing of the c…
- pretrial interventionA program that sends certain defendants, before trial, to community schemes for job training, education, and the like…
- pretrial investigationIn military law, an investigation to decide whether a case should be recommended for trial by general court-martial.
- pretrial orderA court order setting out the claims and defenses to be tried, what the parties have agreed, and the procedural rules…
- prevailTo obtain the relief sought and so win the case; also to be generally accepted.
- prevailing partyThe party in whose favor judgment is given, whatever the amount of damages awarded.
- prevaricationLying or evading the truth.
- prevaricatorA liar or equivocator; in Roman law, a person who betrays another's trust, such as an advocate who secretly helps the…
- preventTo hinder or impede.
- preventative custodyCustody imposed to stop further dangerous or criminal conduct rather than to punish.
- preventionThe right of one of several judges with concurrent jurisdiction to keep a case they were the first to take up.
- prevention doctrineIn contract law, the rule that each party impliedly undertakes not to do anything that stops the other from performing.
- preventive custodyCustody meant to stop further dangerous or criminal conduct.
- preventive detentionConfinement imposed on a defendant who has threatened to abscond or has broken the law while awaiting trial, or on a…
- preventive injunctionAn injunction designed to head off a loss or injury before it happens.
- preventive punishmentPunishment imposed to stop the offender from doing the same thing again, rather than to repay them for what they did.
- previously taxed incomeAn S corporation's undistributed taxable income, taxed to the shareholders as of the last day of the corporation's ta…
- priceThe money or other consideration asked or given in exchange for something: what a thing is bought or sold for.
- price amendmentIn securities law, a change to a registration statement or prospectus affecting the offering price, the underwriting…
- price discriminationCharging different buyers different prices for the same goods though they cost the same to produce. It can breach the…
- price expectancyThe least a seller expects a thing to fetch, below which they will not sell.
- price indexAn index of average prices stated as a percentage of the average prevailing at some other time, such as a base year.
- price leadershipA market in which one firm sets a price that the rest of the industry follows. Leadership alone does not breach the a…
- price memorandumIn securities law, a document an underwriter prepares explaining how a public offering was priced, often setting out…
- price supportThe artificial holding of prices at a set level, above all by government action such as a subsidy.
- price warA spell of sustained price-cutting in an industry, meant to undersell competitors or drive them out of business.
- price-earnings ratioThe ratio of a share's current price to the company's earnings per share over the past year. Investors often treat a…
- price-fixingThe setting or holding of prices at an artificial level, against the workings of the free market. It is usually unlaw…
- price-level-adjusted mortgageA mortgage with a fixed interest rate whose outstanding principal is adjusted to keep pace with inflation.
- price/cost analysisA method of deciding, for antitrust purposes, whether pricing was predatory, by comparing the defendant’s prices with…
- priest-penitent privilegeThe protection given to confidential communications made to a member of the clergy acting in a spiritual capacity.
- prima facie caseEnough evidence to raise a presumption in the party's favor, or to let the factfinder infer the fact at issue and fin…
- prima facie evidenceEvidence that will establish a fact or support a judgment unless contradictory evidence is produced.
- prima facie presumptionAn inference drawn from facts that make out a prima facie case, which contrary evidence may displace.
- prima facie privilegeImmunity from civil liability for a public official exercising a discretionary function, so long as the conduct does…
- prima facie tortThe deliberate and unjustified infliction of harm by acts that would otherwise be lawful. Some jurisdictions recogniz…
- primae impressionisOf the first impression: raising a question the courts have not decided before.
- primae precesFirst requests: the right of a sovereign to name the first person to a benefice in the gift of a newly appointed prel…
- primageA small gratuity traditionally paid to a ship's master, and sometimes the crew, for looking after the cargo.
- primaryA preliminary election in which a party's registered voters choose the candidate who will stand in the general election.
- primary activityConcerted action, such as a strike or picketing, aimed at the employer the union is actually in dispute with.
- primary allegationThe main charge made against an opponent in a legal proceeding. In church law it meant the opening pleading in an act…
- primary authorityAuthority coming directly from a law-making body, such as legislation and the reports of decided cases.
- primary beneficiaryThe person named in a life policy to take the proceeds when the insured dies.
- primary boycottA boycott by union members who stop dealing with a former employer.
- primary causeThe cause that sets events in motion and from which the injury follows; the first in the chain rather than the last.
- primary committeeIn bankruptcy law, a group of creditors organized to help the debtor draw up a plan of reorganization.
- primary conveyanceA conveyance that creates an estate. Feoffment, gift, grant, lease, exchange, and partition are examples.
- primary electionA preliminary election in which a party's registered voters choose the candidate who will stand in the general election.
- primary evidenceThe best evidence the nature of the case allows, judged by what is available rather than by the thing offered.
- primary factA fact that direct testimony can establish, and from which inferences are drawn on the way to the ultimate facts.
- primary insuranceInsurance that responds as soon as a loss occurs, without waiting for some other policy to be exhausted first.
- primary leaseA lease out of which a sublease has been granted, so that the original tenant becomes a landlord in turn.
- primary liabilityLiability a person bears directly, as opposed to liability that falls on them only if someone else defaults.
- primary marketThe market in which goods or securities are first offered for sale, above all where a company issues new securities t…
- primary mortgage marketThe market in which mortgage loans are first made to borrowers.
- primary obligationAn obligation arising from the central purpose of the transaction between the parties; also a basic contractual term…
- primary offeringThe sale of an issue of securities by the company itself, the proceeds going to the company rather than to a selling…
- primary pleaThe principal charge made against an opponent; in church law, the opening pleading in an action.
- primary powersThe chief powers a principal gives an agent so that the agent's task can be carried out.
- primary reserve ratioThe ratio of a bank's required reserves, being vault cash and deposits with the Federal Reserve, to its demand and ti…
- primary rightA right the substantive law confers, such as the right not to be defamed or assaulted. Enforcing it directly is calle…
- primary-jurisdiction doctrineThe doctrine that where a court and an agency both have jurisdiction, the court should ordinarily let the agency deci…
- primary-line competitionCompetition between a seller and its direct rivals. The Sherman Act forbids unreasonable restraints on it, such as pr…
- primary-line injuryIn antitrust law, harm caused by charging predatory below-cost prices to drive out the seller's own competitors, as d…
- primateA chief churchman: an archbishop or bishop with jurisdiction over the other bishops of a province.
- primeThe rate a commercial bank publishes as its lowest for a short-term loan to its most creditworthy borrowers, usually…
- prime contractorA person who contracts to complete a whole project, buying the materials, hiring and paying the subcontractors, and c…
- prime costThe true price paid for goods in a genuine purchase.
- prime lending rateThe rate a commercial bank publishes as its lowest for a short-term loan to its most creditworthy borrowers.
- prime makerThe person primarily liable on a note or other negotiable instrument.
- prime ministerThe chief executive of a parliamentary government: the head of the cabinet.
- prime rateThe rate a commercial bank advertises as its lowest for short-term lending to its soundest borrowers, usually large c…
- prime serjeantThe serjeant given the first right of audience by royal letters patent.
- prime tenantA commercial or professional tenant of established reputation who takes substantial and usually the best space in a d…
- primer electionA first choice, above all the eldest coparcener's pick of land when an estate is divided.
- primer fineA fee payable to the Crown on suing out a writ of praecipe to begin a conveyance by fine.
- primer seisinThe Crown's right to a year's profits of the estate of a tenant who died holding a knight's fee, or half a year's pro…
- primitiaeThe first year's income of a church living, once payable to the Crown or the Pope.
- primogenitureBeing the firstborn child; also the common-law rule by which the eldest son inherited his ancestor's land, to the exc…
- principalChief or most important; also the person for whom an agent acts, the sum of a debt apart from interest, and the chief…
- principal contractA contract that gives rise to a secondary one, as where an agreement creates the debt that a guarantee then secures.
- principal covenantA covenant bearing directly on the main subject of an agreement.
- principal creditorA creditor whose claim is far larger than those of the other creditors.
- principal demandThe principal claim in a lawsuit, as opposed to an incidental or ancillary one.
- principal factA fact on which the plaintiff's right to recover turns.
- principal in the first degreeThe person who actually commits the crime, whether by their own hand or through an innocent agent acting under their…
- principal in the second degreeA person who helps the perpetrator at the time of the crime, being present or near enough to assist.
- principal place of businessThe place where a company's chief executive offices are: its nerve center.
- principal rightA right to which a supplementary right has been added in the same owner.
- principle of finalityThe rule that a court will not review an agency's action until the agency has finished with it.
- principle of legalityThe principle that no one may be punished except for conduct that the law defined as an offense before it was done.
- principle of retributionThe principle that punishment should answer the crime in kind: an eye for an eye.
- Printers Ink StatuteA model statute drafted in 1911, and since adopted in many states, making it an offense to publish false or misleadin…
- priorComing before in time or order; also taking precedence.
- prior artWhat was already known, and what would have been obvious from it, to someone of ordinary skill in the field at the re…
- prior consistent statementA witness's earlier statement that agrees with their evidence at trial. It is not hearsay when offered to rebut a cha…
- prior creditorA creditor given priority for payment out of the debtor's assets.
- prior inconsistent statementA witness's earlier statement that conflicts with their evidence at trial. In federal practice, an unsworn one may be…
- prior lienA lien ranking ahead of one or more other liens on the same property, usually because it was perfected first.
- prior preferred stockPreferred stock ranking ahead of another class of preferred stock from the same issuer, usually as to dividends or cl…
- prior restraintA government restriction on speech or publication imposed before it is expressed. Such restraints offend the First Am…
- prior-appropriation doctrineThe rule that the earliest user of water from a stream has the right to take all they can use before anyone else may…
- prior-claim ruleThe rule that a taxpayer must first put a claim for a refund or abatement to the tax authority before suing on it.
- prior-use barIn patent law, the rule barring a patent for an invention that was publicly used or sold in the United States more th…
- prior-use doctrineThe rule that, without legislative authority, a government agency may not take property already devoted to a public use.
- priorityBeing earlier in time or higher in rank; also an established right to such precedence, above all a creditor's right t…
- priority claimIn bankruptcy law, an unsecured claim that must be paid before other unsecured claims. The Bankruptcy Code ranks them…
- priority lienA lien ranking ahead of one or more other liens on the same property, usually because it was perfected first.
- priority of inventionThe decision as to which of several applications for substantially the same invention should receive the patent, once…
- priority of liensThe ranking of liens in the order in which they were perfected.
- priority-jurisdiction ruleThe rule that where the same parties bring suits on the same issues in two courts of proper jurisdiction, the court t…
- prisageA royal duty on wine imported into England, replaced by butlerage in the reign of Edward I.
- prisel en auter lieuA plea in abatement in a replevin action, that the goods were taken in a different place from the one alleged.
- prisonA state or federal place of confinement for convicted criminals, above all felons.
- prison breachA prisoner's breaking out of lawful confinement by force. It was traditionally distinguished from escape by the use o…
- prison campA camp, usually of minimum security, holding trustworthy prisoners who often work on government projects.
- prisonerA person serving a sentence in prison; also anyone taken into custody by a law-enforcement officer, whether or not th…
- prisoner at the barAn accused person who is on trial.
- prisoner of conscienceIn international law, a person imprisoned for a political, religious, or other conscientiously held belief, or becaus…
- prisoner's dilemmaA logic problem used to show what cooperation is worth: two prisoners are questioned separately, and each does better…
- pristFormerly, ready: a word used in oral pleading to join issue.
- privacy lawA statute protecting a person's right to be left alone, or restricting public access to personal information such as…
- privacy, invasion ofAn unjustified exploitation of a person's personality or intrusion into their private life, actionable in tort and so…
- privacy, right ofThe right to personal autonomy. The Constitution does not mention it, but the Supreme Court has held it implicit in t…
- privateBelonging to an individual rather than to the public or the government; of a company, having no shares traded on an o…
- private agentAn agent acting for an individual in their private affairs.
- private annuityAn annuity from a private source rather than from a public body or a life-insurance company.
- private attorneyA lawyer in private practice, as opposed to one holding public office.
- private bankAn unincorporated banking business owned by an individual or a partnership, which depending on the state may or may n…
- private billA bill concerning a matter of purely personal or local interest.
- private boundaryA natural or artificial line marking the limits of a piece of land.
- private carrierA carrier that need not take business from the public at large, and so is not a common carrier.
- private corporationA corporation founded by private individuals mainly for a non-public purpose, such as manufacturing, banking, or runn…
- private delictA wrong treated chiefly as a matter of compensation between individuals.
- private easementAn easement whose benefit is confined to one person or a few named people.
- private factA fact that has not been made public. Whether a fact counts as private often comes up in invasion-of-privacy claims.
- private foundationA foundation funded from private rather than public sources, set up to support charitable or educational work. It is…
- private international lawThe body of rules that decides which country's law governs a private dispute touching more than one country, and whic…
- private judgingA form of alternative dispute resolution in which the parties engage a private individual to hear and decide the case…
- private land grantA grant of public land to an individual rather than to a company or a public body.
- private lawThe body of law governing private people, their property, and their relations with one another; also a law aimed at o…
- private letter rulingIn tax law, a written statement the tax authority issues to a taxpayer who has asked how a particular transaction wil…
- private moralityA person's ideals, character, and private conduct. On the view John Stuart Mill set out in On Liberty in 1859, govern…
- private mortgage insuranceAn agreement to pay off a mortgage if the insured dies or becomes disabled; also an agreement to pay the lender if th…
- private necessityIn tort law, a necessity touching only the defendant's own interest, which gives a limited privilege. Someone who kee…
- private nuisanceA condition that interferes with a person's enjoyment of their property without amounting to a trespass. It is a tort…
- private offeringAn offering made only to a small group of interested buyers rather than to the public.
- private personA person who holds no public office and does not serve in the military; in civil law, a body such as a company or par…
- private placementA sale of securities to a limited number of investors without a public offering; also, in family law, the placing of…
- private powerA power a person holds to be used for their own ends, rather than as an agent of the state.
- private propertyProperty belonging to an individual or a private body rather than to the public or the government.
- private prosecutorA lawyer whom the victim of a crime engages to help conduct the prosecution alongside, or in place of, the public pro…
- private publicationA distribution of copies confined to a chosen group at a time when copies are not available to anyone else, made for…
- private reprimandA reprimand that is not published, or is published without naming the lawyer.
- private rightA right belonging to an individual, as opposed to one belonging to the public or the state.
- private saleAn unadvertised sale negotiated directly between buyer and seller rather than through an agent or at auction.
- private schoolA school run by private individuals, religious bodies, or companies, funded at least partly by fees, and admitting on…
- private sealThe seal of an individual or a company, as opposed to a public seal.
- private searchA search made by a private person rather than a law-enforcement officer. What is found is generally admissible, so lo…
- private sectorThe part of the economy free from direct government control.
- private servitudeA servitude belonging to a particular person, such as a right of way across a neighbor's land or a right to fish in a…
- private signatureA person's name or mark written by them or at their direction.
- private statuteA law aimed at a particular person or body rather than at the public generally.
- private streamA watercourse whose bed, channel, and water are owned entirely by private parties.
- private trustA trust created for the benefit of named beneficiaries rather than for the public. Three things are needed: words suf…
- private warArmed conflict between private individuals or families, carried on without the authority of the state.
- private waterWater that is not navigable, owned and controlled by private individuals and not open to public use.
- private wayA right to pass over another's land; also a way local authorities provide chiefly for particular individuals, usually…
- private wharfA wharf that only its owner or tenant may use.
- private wrongA wrong done to a private person, which that person must bring proceedings to redress.
- private-attorney-general doctrineThe equitable rule allowing legal fees to a party whose lawsuit benefits a large number of people, needs private enfo…
- privateerA privately owned vessel authorized by a government to attack enemy shipping; also a sailor serving aboard one.
- privateeringThe practice of arming privately owned merchant ships to attack enemy trading vessels. Governments once commissioned…
- privationThe taking away or withdrawing of something; also the state of being deprived.
- privatizationThe transfer of a business or industry from public into private ownership.
- privatumPrivate, as in the phrase for private law.
- priviesPeople connected by privity, so that each has a legally recognized interest in the same matter or property. The old c…
- privignaIn Roman and civil law, a stepdaughter: the daughter of one's spouse by an earlier marriage.
- privignusIn Roman and civil law, a stepson: the son of one's spouse by an earlier marriage.
- privilegeA special right, exemption, or immunity granted to a person or class of persons, or an exception to a duty.
- privilege against self-incriminationA defendant's or witness's right under the Fifth Amendment not to be compelled to give evidence that might expose the…
- privilege from arrestAn exemption from arrest, such as that members of Congress enjoy while the legislature is sitting.
- privilege taxA tax on the privilege of carrying on a business or occupation for which a licence or franchise is required.
- privilegedNot subject to the usual rules or liabilities, above all not subject to disclosure in a lawsuit.
- privileged communicationA communication the law protects from being disclosed under compulsion.
- privileged debtA debt that ranks ahead of others if the debtor becomes insolvent; a secured debt.
- privileged evidenceEvidence that need not be produced to the other side, subject to limited exceptions, because it is protected by statu…
- privileged villeinageVilleinage in which the services owed were fixed and certain, though still of a servile kind.
- Privileges and Immunities ClauseThe provision in Article IV of the Constitution forbidding a state to favor its own citizens by discriminating agains…
- Privileges or Immunities ClauseThe provision in the Fourteenth Amendment forbidding state laws that abridge the privileges or immunities of United S…
- privilegiumIn Roman law, a law passed for or against one particular person; also a special right, above all one giving a credito…
- privityThe relationship between two parties each having a legally recognized interest in the same transaction, proceeding, o…
- privity of bloodPrivity between an heir and an ancestor, or between coparceners.
- privity of contractThe relationship between the parties to a contract, which lets them sue each other but keeps a stranger from suing on…
- privity of estateA shared or successive relationship to the same interest in property, as between grantor and grantee or landlord and…
- privity of possessionPrivity between people who have held the same land one after the other. Whether it exists often matters in claims of…
- privity ruleThe common-law rule that a contract cannot affect the rights of someone who is not a party to it; also, in evidence,…
- privyA person connected with another by privity, so that both have a legally recognized interest in the same matter or pro…
- Privy CouncilIn Britain, the sovereign's principal council, made up of cabinet ministers and others appointed to it. Its functions…
- privy purseThe income set aside for the sovereign's personal use.
- privy sealA seal used on grants and letters patent before they pass under the Great Seal; also the officer who keeps it and aut…
- privy signetThe signet the sovereign uses on grants and private letters.
- privy verdictA verdict the jury, having agreed after the judge had left court, gave privately to the judge so that they could be r…
- prizeSomething of value awarded for an achievement; also a vessel or cargo captured at sea in wartime, which may then be c…
- prize courtA court with power to decide on ships and cargoes captured at sea in wartime.
- prize fightingFighting for a reward, above all professional boxing.
- prize goodsGoods captured at sea as prize, which may be condemned as enemy property.
- prize lawThe body of law governing captures at sea, dealing with such matters as the captors' rights and the sharing out of th…
- prize moneyA share of the proceeds of a captured vessel paid to the captors; also money offered as an award.
- PROA peer-review organization, which monitors whether hospitals seeking public money comply with health regulations.
- pro bonoFor the public good: describing legal work a lawyer does without charge for those who cannot pay.
- pro bono et maloFor good and ill.
- pro consilio impendendoFor counsel to be given. Advice could once count as consideration for the grant of an annuity.
- pro defectu emptorumFor want of purchasers.
- pro defectu exitusFor want of issue: describing property that reverts because a person died without descendants.
- pro defectu haeredisFor want of an heir.
- pro defectu justitiaeFor want of justice.
- pro hac viceFor this occasion: describing a lawyer not admitted in a jurisdiction who is allowed to appear there for one particul…
- pro indivisoOf property, owned or held by several people at once, without any division between them.
- pro interesse suoAccording to one's own interest: describing an intervention allowed only to the extent of the intervener's own stake…
- pro majori cautelaFor greater caution: describing something done or a clause inserted by way of extra security.
- pro perOn one's own behalf: describing a person who appears in a case without a lawyer.
- pro personaFor one's own person: on one's own behalf.
- pro rataIn proportion: according to an exact rate or share.
- pro rata clauseA clause in an insurance policy providing that where other insurance covers the same loss, the insurer pays only its…
- pro re nataAs the occasion arises: describing something done to meet a need as it comes up.
- pro seAppearing in a court proceeding for oneself, without a lawyer.
- pro tantoTo that extent: for so much, or as far as it goes.
- pro temporeFor the time being: appointed to hold a position temporarily.
- pro-con divorceAn uncontested divorce granted after only the claimant appears, the defendant contesting nothing.
- proamitaIn Roman and civil law, a great-great-aunt: the sister of one's great-grandfather.
- proaviaIn Roman and civil law, a great-grandmother.
- probable causeReasonable ground to suspect that a person has committed or is committing a crime, or that a particular place holds i…
- probable consequenceAn outcome more likely than not to follow from its supposed cause.
- probable evidenceEvidence taken as true and sufficient unless other evidence discredits it. In older usage the phrase meant circumstan…
- probable-cause hearingA criminal hearing, usually before a magistrate, to decide whether there is enough evidence to prosecute. If there is…
- probable-desistance testA common-law test for attempt, asking whether the defendant's conduct has gone so far that they are unlikely to turn…
- probandumThe fact to be proved.
- probateThe court procedure by which a will is shown to be valid. Unless set aside, probate settles for the parties and anyon…
- probate assetAn asset of a deceased person that the law makes available to meet creditors' claims or legacies.
- probate bondA bond the law requires during probate, such as one filed by an executor, to ensure that the person giving it perform…
- probate codeA collection of statutes setting out the law, substantive and procedural, of deceased persons' estates and of trusts.
- probate courtA court with power to rule on whether wills are valid, to oversee the administration of estates, and in some states t…
- probate distributionThe court-supervised dividing up of an estate's assets, usually after debts and charges are paid, among those legally…
- probate dutyA duty the government charged either on every will admitted to probate or on the gross value of the deceased's person…
- probate estateThe property of a dead person that the personal representative administers.
- probate homesteadA homestead set aside for a dead person's surviving spouse and minor children, free from creditors' claims.
- probate in common formProbate granted in the registry, without any court hearing, on the executor's own application. It can be revoked.
- probate in solemn formProbate granted in open court as a final decree, all interested parties having been notified. It cannot be revoked as…
- probate judgeA judge with jurisdiction over probate, inheritance, guardianship, and similar matters.
- probate jurisdictionJurisdiction over wills, the winding up of dead people's estates, and, in some states, guardianship and the adoption…
- probate registerThe clerk of a probate court, who in some places also acts as a part-judicial officer in probating estates.
- probatioIn Roman and civil law, proof.
- probatio semi-plenaIn Roman and civil law, half proof: evidence, such as a single witness, that falls short of what was needed to establ…
- probationA criminal sentence that releases a convicted person into the community, on stated conditions, instead of sending the…
- probation before judgmentA judgment putting a convicted defendant on probation, which if completed successfully keeps the conviction from bein…
- probation officerAn officer who supervises a person on probation.
- probation without judgmentA judgment putting a convicted defendant on probation, which if completed successfully keeps the conviction from bein…
- probationerA convicted person who is on probation.
- probativeTending to prove or disprove something. A court may exclude relevant evidence where its probative value is substantia…
- probative evidenceEvidence tending to prove or disprove a point in issue.
- probative factA fact in evidence used to prove an ultimate fact, as skid marks are used to show speed on the way to a finding of ne…
- probatorAn accused person who confessed but claimed that someone else took part too, and who then had to prove that person's…
- probatumSomething conclusively established: proof.
- probus et legalis homoA good and lawful man: a person legally competent to serve on a jury.
- procedendoA higher court's order directing a lower court to decide a case and enter judgment in it.
- procedendo ad judiciumA writ ordering a lower court to proceed to judgment in a case it has left undecided.
- procedural consolidationAnother name for joint administration, where related bankruptcy cases are handled together for procedural purposes wh…
- procedural due processThe minimum requirements of notice and a hearing guaranteed by the Due Process Clauses of the Fifth and Fourteenth Am…
- procedural lawThe rules setting out the steps for enforcing a right or duty in court, as opposed to the law that says what those ri…
- procedural presumptionA presumption that credible evidence to the contrary will displace.
- procedural rightA right arising from legal or administrative procedure, which serves to protect or enforce a substantive right.
- procedural unconscionabilityUnfairness arising from how a contract was made, such as oral misrepresentations or a gross inequality of bargaining…
- procedural-default doctrineThe rule that a federal court may not review the merits of a habeas corpus petition where a state court refused to co…
- procedureA particular method or course of action; also the rules governing how a civil suit or criminal prosecution is conducted.
- proceedingThe orderly progress of a lawsuit, taking in everything from its commencement to judgment; also any procedural means…
- proceedsWhat is received on selling, exchanging, or otherwise disposing of something, above all of collateral. Proceeds diffe…
- proceresNobles or lords.
- proces-verbalIn French law, an official written record of oral proceedings.
- processThe steps taken in an action or prosecution; also a summons or writ, above all one requiring a person to appear or an…
- process agentSomeone authorized to accept service of court papers on another's behalf.
- process by foreign attachmentA procedure by which a creditor attaches property that a third party holds for the debtor, so that the debt can be sa…
- process patentA patent for a method of treating materials to produce a given result: a way of bringing about a physical result what…
- process serverA person authorized by law or by a court to deliver process formally to a defendant.
- process, abuse ofUsing a properly issued court process for an improper end, to obtain a result that is unlawful or that the process wa…
- processioningThe survey and inspection of land boundaries, carried out above all in the former English colonies along the southeas…
- processum continuandoA writ for continuing proceedings after the death of a justice commissioned to hear the case.
- proclamationA formal public announcement by the government.
- proclamation by lord of manorA proclamation, made three times by the lord of a manor, requiring the heir or devisee of a dead copyholder to pay a…
- proclamation of exigentsRepeated proclamations by the sheriff that a person in the county was about to be outlawed.
- proclamation of rebellionA proclamation by the sheriff warning someone who had disobeyed a Chancery subpoena that a commission of rebellion wo…
- proclamation of recusantsA proclamation by which people who deliberately stayed away from church could be convicted if they failed to appear a…
- proclamatorAn officer of the Court of Common Pleas responsible for making proclamations.
- proconsulA former consul who went on exercising a consul's powers after leaving office; also the governor of certain provinces.
- proctorA person appointed to manage another's affairs; in church law, an advocate who represents a religious house in its le…
- procuracyThe document conferring authority on an attorney-in-fact.
- procuratioThe management of another's affairs: agency.
- procurationThe appointing of someone as an agent or attorney-in-fact, and the authority so given; also the obtaining of somethin…
- procuration feeA commission allowed to a solicitor for obtaining a loan.
- procuratorIn Roman law, a person informally appointed to represent another in a lawsuit, or a government official ranking below…
- procurator fiscalIn Scots law, the local representative of the Lord Advocate in the inferior courts, who investigates crimes and condu…
- procurator in rem suamIn Roman law, the assignee of a right of action. In Scots law, the position of someone acting under a power of attorn…
- procuratores ecclesiae parochialisFormerly, a churchwarden: a representative of a parish church.
- procuratoriumThe document by which a person appointed a representative to act for them in litigation.
- procuratrixA woman acting as agent or attorney-in-fact.
- procurementThe obtaining of something; also the persuading of another person, above all a woman or child, to take part in illici…
- procurement contractA contract under which a government buys goods or services. Such contracts, including the bidding for them, are gover…
- procurement of breach of contractDeliberately inducing a party to break a contract with someone else, which is a tort where no privilege justifies it.
- procurerA person who induces another to do something, above all to take part in an illicit sexual act.
- procuring an abortionBringing about the ending of a pregnancy. In Roe v. Wade the Supreme Court first recognized a right to choose to end…
- procuring causeIn real-estate law, the work of the agent or broker that actually brings about the sale, and so earns the commission.
- prodigalA person so wasteful with money that a court appoints someone to manage their affairs.
- prodigusA spendthrift: a person who squanders their property.
- proditorieTreasonably: a word once required in an indictment for treason.
- produceThe product of natural growth, labor, or capital, above all agricultural produce.
- producerA person authorized by an insurer to sell its policies.
- producer price indexAn index of changes in wholesale prices, published monthly by the federal labor statisticians.
- producer surplusThe difference between what a commodity or service actually earns and what it costs to supply: the gain a producer ma…
- producing causeThe cause that in a natural sequence produced the injury, without which it would not have occurred.
- productSomething distributed commercially for use or consumption, usually tangible personal property that has been made or p…
- product defectA flaw in a product arising from its manufacture or design, or from inadequate instructions or warnings.
- product liabilityA maker's or seller's liability in tort for harm a defective product causes a buyer, user, or bystander. The claim ma…
- product marketIn antitrust law, the part of the relevant market covering a firm's particular product, worked out by identifying eve…
- product testA test for insanity holding that a defendant is not criminally responsible for an act that was the product of mental…
- product-extension mergerA merger in which the acquired company's products complement the buyer's, and can be made in similar plants, sold thr…
- product-liabilityA maker's or seller's liability in tort for harm a defective product causes a buyer, user, or bystander.
- production burdenA party's duty to put in enough evidence on an issue for the factfinder to decide it, rather than have it decided aga…
- production for commerceThe making of goods that the employer intends for interstate commerce. It is one of the tests by which an employer co…
- production of suitIn common-law pleading, the claimant's duty to produce evidence supporting the allegations in the declaration.
- products liabilityA maker's or seller's liability in tort for harm a defective product causes a buyer, a user, or a bystander. The clai…
- products-liability actionA lawsuit against a maker, seller, or lessor of a product, whatever the legal theory relied on, for injury, death, or…
- products-liability insuranceAn agreement to indemnify a manufacturer, supplier, or retailer against liability to a user harmed by a product the i…
- profaneOf speech or conduct, irreverent toward what is held sacred.
- proferAn offer; also a sheriff's return of an account into the Exchequer.
- proferensThe party who puts forward a contract or one of its terms, and against whom an ambiguity in it is construed.
- profertIn common-law pleading, a statement on the record that a party produces in court the deed or other document relied on…
- profert in curiaHe produces in court: the phrase by which a claimant asserted readiness to produce the deed or other instrument the a…
- professTo declare openly.
- professio jurisThe recognition that parties to a contract may choose the law that will govern it.
- professionA calling that requires advanced education and training; also the members of such a calling taken together.
- professionalA member of a learned profession, or a person whose work requires a high level of training and skill.
- professional associationA group of professionals organized to practice together, though not necessarily as a company or partnership; also, a…
- professional corporationA corporation formed to provide services that require a professional license, such as those of architects, accountant…
- professional negligenceA professional's negligence or incompetence in doing their work. To win such a claim, the claimant must also prove th…
- profferTo offer or tender something, above all evidence, for immediate acceptance.
- proffered evidenceEvidence put before the court so that it can rule on whether it may be admitted; also, evidence whose admissibility d…
- proficuaProfits, above all the profits of an estate in land.
- profitThe excess of revenues over expenditure in a business or transaction: gain.
- profit insuranceInsurance that repays the insured for profits lost through a peril the policy covers.
- profit marginThe gap between what something costs and what it sells for, often stated as a percentage of the selling price. A widg…
- profit-and-loss accountAn account into which all income and expense accounts are transferred, then closed into a company's retained earnings…
- profit-and-loss statementA statement of all the revenues, expenses, gains, and losses of a business over a given period.
- profit-sharing planAn employer's benefit plan letting employees share in the company's profits. Federal pension law governs how many suc…
- profiteerA person who takes advantage of unusual circumstances to make excessive profits.
- profiteeringTaking advantage of unusual or exceptional circumstances to make excessive profits, as by selling scarce goods at inf…
- progenyChildren or descendants; also a line of successors, above all the string of decisions following a leading case.
- prognosisA forecast of how a present medical condition is likely to turn out, and the forecast itself.
- program tradingComputerized securities trading that usually involves buying or selling large blocks of stock while at the same time…
- progressive taxA tax whose rate rises as the amount taxed rises. Most income taxes are progressive, so that higher income is taxed a…
- prohibitTo forbid by law; also to prevent or hinder.
- prohibited degreeA relationship so close, as between brother and sister, that the law forbids marriage between the two. With slight va…
- prohibitio de vastoFormerly, a writ issued during litigation forbidding a tenant to commit waste on the land in dispute.
- prohibitionA law or order forbidding some action; also an extraordinary writ by which a higher court stops a lower court from ex…
- prohibitory injunctionAn injunction forbidding an act or restraining someone from doing it. It is the commonest kind.
- prohibitory interdictAn interdict by which a praetor forbade something to be done.
- project financingA way of funding in which the lender looks mainly to the cash a single project throws off as security for the loan. I…
- projectioLand created by the sea casting up soil along the shore.
- projectorA person who encourages or incites something; also the founder or organizer of a company or business venture.
- projetA draft of a proposed measure, treaty, or convention.
- prolesOffspring, above all the children of a lawful marriage.
- proletariatThe working class: those with no capital who live by selling their labor.
- proletariusIn Roman law, one of the common people, owning little or no property.
- prolicideThe killing of one's offspring, above all a child shortly before or after birth.
- prolixityThe needless setting out of superfluous facts in a pleading or in evidence.
- prolocutorIn church law, the president of a convocation; formerly, the speaker of the House of Lords, an office now held by the…
- promaterteraIn Roman and civil law, a great-great-aunt: the sister of one's great-grandmother.
- promiseAn expression of intention to act or refrain from acting in a stated way, made so that the person it is addressed to…
- promise implied in factA promise inferred from the circumstances or from what the parties did, rather than stated in words.
- promise in consideration of marriageA promise for which the marriage itself is the consideration, as where a man agrees to transfer property to a woman i…
- promise in restraint of tradeA promise whose performance would limit competition in a business or restrict the promisor from following a gainful o…
- promise not to competeA contract term, found above all in employment, partnership, and sale-of-business agreements, by which one party prom…
- promisorA person who makes a promise, above all one who takes on a contractual obligation.
- promissorIn Roman law, the party who undertook to do something in answer to the other party's formal question.
- promissoryContaining or consisting of a promise.
- promissory conditionA condition that is also a promise, so that failing to meet it both defeats the obligation and breaches the contract.
- promissory estoppelThe rule that a promise given without consideration may still be enforced to prevent injustice, where the promisor sh…
- promissory fraudA promise made by someone who never meant to keep it.
- promissory noteAn unconditional written promise, signed by the maker, to pay a fixed sum of money to a named person or to bearer, or…
- promissory oathAn oath binding the swearer to a stated course of conduct in future. The oath of office and the oath of allegiance ar…
- promissory representationA statement about what one will do in future, above all an insured's statement about what will happen during the peri…
- promissory warrantyA warranty that stated facts will remain true throughout the policy period, so that if they cease to be true the insu…
- promoterThe founder or organizer of a company or business venture: the person who takes the initiative in setting it up.
- promoting prostitutionRecruiting a prostitute, finding them a place to work, or soliciting customers for them.
- promulgareTo make a law publicly known after it has been enacted.
- promulgateTo announce publicly; also to put a law or decree into effect.
- promulgationThe official publication of a new law or regulation, by which it takes effect.
- promutuumIn Roman law, a loan made in the expectation of a return loan later, rather than under a formal contract.
- proneposIn Roman and civil law, a great-grandson.
- proneptisIn Roman and civil law, a great-granddaughter.
- pronounceTo announce formally.
- pronurusThe wife of a grandson or great-grandson.
- proofThe establishing or disproving of an alleged fact by evidence, and the persuasive effect that evidence has on the fac…
- proof beyond a reasonable doubtProof that rules out every reasonable explanation except the one it supports: the standard the prosecution must meet…
- proof briefA brief filed in provisional form so that the clerk of the court can check it complies with the rules before the fina…
- proof of acknowledgmentAn officer's certificate, based on a third party's evidence, that a signature is genuine and was freely given, where…
- proof of claimIn bankruptcy law, a creditor's written statement setting out the basis and amount of the claim.
- proof of debtA creditor's establishing of a debt in the prescribed way, such as by affidavit, as the first step toward recovering…
- proof of lossAn insured's formal statement of the loss, required before the insurer will decide whether the policy covers it.
- proof of serviceA document filed in court as evidence that process has been served on a party.
- proof of willThe court procedure by which a will is shown to be valid. Unless set aside, it settles for the parties the questions…
- proof, burden ofA party's duty to prove a disputed assertion. It takes in both the burden of persuading the factfinder and the burden…
- propagandaThe systematic spreading of doctrine, rumor, or selected information to promote or damage a cause; also the material…
- propatruusIn Roman and civil law, a great-grandfather's brother.
- propatruus magnusIn Roman and civil law, a great-great-great-uncle.
- proper careFor deciding negligence, the care that a prudent and competent person in the same line of work would take in the same…
- proper evidenceEvidence that is relevant and of such a character, not unfairly prejudicial and not hearsay, that the court ought to…
- proper feudAn inheritable estate in land granted by a feudal superior on condition that the tenant render services in return.
- proper independent adviceAdvice that is impartial and not given to serve the interests of the person giving it. Whether a testator or donor ha…
- proper lawIn the conflict of laws, the substantive law that, under conflicts principles, governs the transaction.
- proper lookoutA driver's duty to keep watch so as to avoid colliding with pedestrians or other vehicles.
- proper partyA party who may be joined for convenience but whose presence is not essential to deciding the case.
- propertyThe right to possess, use, and enjoy a particular thing, whether land or goods: ownership. The word also names the th…
- property crimesCrimes against another's property, such as theft, burglary, arson, and criminal damage.
- property dividendA dividend paid in property, usually the company's own product, rather than in cash or shares.
- property insuranceAn agreement to indemnify against damage to or destruction of property.
- property of the debtorIn bankruptcy law, property the debtor owns or in some cases holds, including property exempt from the bankruptcy est…
- property of the estateIn bankruptcy law, the debtor's property interests, legal and equitable, that come under the bankruptcy court's contr…
- property rightA right to particular property, whether tangible or not.
- property settlementA judgment in a divorce dividing the marital property between the parties; also any agreement between spouses about w…
- property taxA tax on the owner of property, above all land, usually reckoned on its value. Local governments often levy it to fun…
- property tortA tort consisting of damage to property.
- property-damage insuranceInsurance against damage to or destruction of property.
- property, law ofThe branch of law dealing with rights in things good against the world: one of the three great divisions of the civil…
- prophylacticDesigned to prevent something before it happens.
- propinquityNearness; in particular, nearness of kinship.
- propior sobrinaIn civil law, the daughter of a great-uncle or great-aunt on either side.
- propior sobrinoIn civil law, the son of a great-uncle or great-aunt on either side.
- proponeTo put something forward for consideration or decision.
- proponentA person who puts forward a legal document for acceptance, above all one who offers a will for probate; also anyone w…
- proportional representationAn electoral system that gives each political group seats in proportion to the votes it wins.
- proportional taxA tax whose rate stays the same whatever the amount taxed. Sales taxes are usually of this kind.
- proportionalityIn international law, the principle that force used must be proportionate to the threat or wrong that provoked it.
- proportionality reviewAn appellate court's check on whether a death sentence is arbitrary, made by comparing the case with similar ones in…
- proposalSomething put forward for consideration or acceptance.
- proposed regulationA draft regulation circulated among interested parties for comment before it is adopted.
- propositusIn civil law, the person from whom descent is traced, or whose rights and obligations are in question.
- propoundTo put something forward for consideration; also to offer a will as authentic.
- propounderAn executor or administrator who offers a will or other testamentary document for probate.
- propria personaIn one's own person: appearing for oneself, without a lawyer.
- proprietaryHaving to do with a proprietor, or held as property.
- proprietary actIn tort law, conduct by a municipality carried on for its own profit or benefit rather than for the public's. A munic…
- proprietary articleA product made under an exclusive right to sell it, such as a patented or trademarked article.
- proprietary capacityThe character in which a city or town acts when it runs something like a business rather than performing a function o…
- proprietary capitalThe money representing the original investment in a sole proprietorship.
- proprietary drugA drug prepared and packaged ready for the public to use, which may be sold over the counter.
- proprietary dutyA duty a municipality owes while carrying on a proprietary rather than a governmental activity.
- proprietary functionIn tort law, conduct by a municipality carried on for its own profit or benefit rather than for the public's, for whi…
- proprietary governmentA colonial government in which the Crown granted a territory to a proprietor, who governed it and appointed its offic…
- proprietary informationInformation in which the owner has an interest the law will protect, such as a trade secret.
- proprietary interestAn owner's interest in property, together with the rights that go with it, such as a shareholder's right to vote the…
- proprietary leaseA lease between a cooperative apartment association and one of its tenant-shareholders.
- proprietary powerA power that goes with an ownership interest in the property it affects, so that the holder exercises it for their ow…
- proprietary rightA right forming part of a person's estate or property, as opposed to one arising from their legal status.
- proprietasOwnership.
- proprietas nudaBare ownership: title to property without the right to use it or take its fruits.
- proprietas plenaFull ownership, taking in both the title and the right to use the property and take its fruits.
- proprietate probandaA writ ordering a sheriff to inquire who owns goods that a defendant claims in a replevin action.
- proprietorAn owner, above all a person who runs a business.
- proprietorshipA business in which one person owns all the assets, owes all the liabilities, and trades in their own name; also the…
- proprietyPrivately owned possessions: property.
- propter affectumA challenge to a juror on the ground of some circumstance, such as kinship with a party, that makes them unfit to ser…
- propter defectumA challenge to a juror on the ground that they are unfit to serve on any jury, for a reason such as alienage, infancy…
- propter delictumA challenge to a juror on the ground that they have lost their civil rights, as by conviction of an infamous crime.
- propter impotentiamOn account of helplessness: once a ground for claiming property in a wild animal, as where a fledgling could not yet…
- prorateTo divide or distribute in proportion.
- prorogationThe putting off of something to another day, above all the ending of a legislative session until the next term begins.
- prorogueTo postpone; also to end a session of a legislature, above all Parliament, without dissolving it.
- proscribeTo forbid or outlaw. In Roman law, to publish a person's name as condemned to death and forfeiture of property.
- proscriptionThe forbidding of something, or the state of being forbidden; also the prohibition itself.
- proscriptiveForbidding something: of the nature of a prohibition.
- prosecuteTo begin and carry through a legal action; also to bring and pursue a criminal case against someone.
- prosecuting attorneyA public official, appointed or elected, who represents the state in criminal cases in a particular district.
- prosecuting witnessThe person who makes the complaint that sets a prosecution going, and on whose evidence the prosecution usually depends.
- prosecutionThe beginning and carrying on of an action; also a criminal proceeding in which an accused person is tried.
- prosecution historyIn patent law, the whole record of proceedings in the Patent and Trademark Office from the first application to the g…
- prosecution-history estoppelIn patent law, the rule barring a patent holder from relying on the doctrine of equivalents where, during the applica…
- prosecutorA legal officer who represents the government in criminal proceedings.
- prosecutorial discretionA prosecutor's power to choose among the options in a criminal case, such as whether to charge, whether to prosecute,…
- prosecutorial misconductA prosecutor's improper or unlawful act or omission, above all an attempt to persuade the jury to convict wrongly or…
- prosequiTo pursue or prosecute.
- prosocerA father-in-law's father: a spouse's grandfather.
- prospectant evidenceEvidence about the period before an act which suggests that the person might or might not have gone on to do it. It u…
- prospectiveOperating in the future; also expected or likely to come about.
- prospective damagesDamages for losses that, on the facts pleaded and proved, can reasonably be expected to occur in the future.
- prospective heirA person who would inherit if the intestate died now, but whose expectation may be defeated by the birth of a nearer…
- prospective nuisanceA condition that is not yet a nuisance but is very likely to become one, so that a court may enjoin it in advance.
- prospective statuteA law that applies only to events happening after it takes effect.
- prospective waiverA giving up of something that has not yet arisen, such as a contractual waiver of future discrimination claims on set…
- prospectusA printed document describing the main features of a business, above all a securities offering, given to prospective…
- prospectusesThe document a company files with the securities regulator before selling securities to the public, containing the de…
- prostitutionEngaging in sexual activity for money or its equivalent.
- protected activityConduct a statute or constitution permits or encourages, and for which a person may not lawfully be punished. Employm…
- protected classA group of people a statute protects, such as those covered by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which forbi…
- protected personA person for whom a conservator has been appointed or a protective order made. In international law, a civilian in th…
- protecting powerIn international law, a country that looks after another country's nationals during a conflict or a break in diplomat…
- protectionThe act of protecting; also the shielding of home industries from foreign competition by tariffs and import restricti…
- protection moneyA bribe paid to an officer to induce them not to interfere with the briber's criminal activity; also money extorted f…
- protection orderA court order forbidding a person to harass, threaten, or in some cases even contact or approach another named person…
- protectionismThe shielding of home businesses and industries from foreign competition by high tariffs and restrictions on imports.
- protective committeeA group of security holders or preferred shareholders appointed to look after their group's interests when a company…
- protective custodyGovernment confinement of a person for their own safety or wellbeing, such as a witness whose life is at risk or some…
- protective orderA court order forbidding or limiting a party from taking a step in litigation, above all in discovery, that would und…
- protective searchA search of a detained suspect and the area within their reach, made to protect the officer from a concealed weapon a…
- protective sweepA quick, limited search an officer makes after lawfully entering premises, where there is reasonable ground to think…
- protective tariffA tariff designed chiefly to shield home manufacturers from foreign price competition rather than to raise revenue.
- protective trustA trust framed to protect the trust property so that the beneficiary's support continues, above all by cutting off th…
- protectorateIn international law, the relationship in which a weaker country hands the management of its more important foreign a…
- protestA formal statement expressing dissent or disapproval; also a notary's written statement that a negotiable instrument…
- protest certificateA notary's certificate recording that the holder of a dishonored negotiable instrument engaged the notary to present…
- protest feeA charge a bank makes when an item such as a check is presented but cannot be collected.
- protestandoProtesting: a word used in a protestation to allege or deny something indirectly.
- protestationIn common-law pleading, a declaration by which a party indirectly alleges or denies a fact, without either affirming…
- prothonotaryA chief clerk in certain courts.
- protocolA summary of a document or treaty; also a treaty amending another, the formal record of a conference, the minutes of…
- protonotaryA chief clerk in certain courts.
- protutorIn civil law, a person who administers another's affairs without having been lawfully appointed guardian.
- prout patet per recordumAs appears by the record.
- proveTo establish the truth of something by satisfactory evidence.
- prove upTo present or complete the proof of something.
- prove-upThe establishing of a prima facie claim. It is needed where a factual assertion goes unopposed, since even an unconte…
- proverA person charged with a felony who tried to obtain a pardon by confessing and naming their accomplices.
- provided, conjOn condition that.
- provinceAn administrative district of a country; also the sphere of a profession such as medicine or law.
- provincial synodA synod made up of the clergy of a single province.
- provisionA clause in a statute, contract, or other legal document; also a stipulation made in advance.
- provision of a fineA proclamation made after land was conveyed by fine, read aloud in court sixteen times over four terms.
- provisionalTemporary, or conditional.
- provisional attachmentAn attachment before judgment, seizing the debtor's property so that a successful creditor can be paid out of its sal…
- provisional courtA federal court whose jurisdiction and powers come from the order creating it, such as a temporary court set up in co…
- provisional directorA director a court appoints to a closely held company whose board has become deadlocked.
- provisional governmentA government set up to run a country temporarily, until a permanent constitutional government can be established.
- provisional injunctionA temporary injunction granted before or during trial to prevent irreparable harm before the court can decide the cas…
- provisional partitionA temporary division of property, often made before the rest can be divided.
- provisional remedyA temporary remedy, such as an injunction or an attachment, granted while an action is pending to keep matters in pla…
- provisional seizureThe seizing of a person's property to secure a judgment, or to be sold in satisfaction of one.
- Provisions of OxfordA set of reforms forced on Henry III by the barons at Oxford in 1258, creating a council that met with the barons sev…
- provisorFormerly, a provider of care or sustenance; in church law, a person the Pope nominated to take a benefice that had no…
- provocationWords or conduct that arouse anger strong enough to make a person act in the heat of passion. Provocation is adequate…
- provocativeTending to arouse anger or a strong reaction.
- provost marshalIn military law, a staff officer who supervises a command's military police and advises the commander on such matters.
- proxeneteA person who negotiates the terms of a contract between others: a broker; also a person who arranges marriages.
- proximateImmediately before or after; very near in time or place.
- proximate causeThe cause that the law treats as responsible for an injury, being close enough in the chain of events that it is fair…
- proximate consequenceA result that follows in an unbroken sequence from some event, above all a negligent one.
- proximate damagesDamages flowing directly, immediately, and naturally from the act complained of.
- proximityNearness in time, place, order, or relation.
- proxyA person authorized to act for another, above all one authorized to vote another's shares; also the authority so give…
- proxy contestA struggle between two factions in a company to win the votes of uncommitted shareholders, usually over control of th…
- proxy marriageA wedding at which someone stands in for an absent bride or groom, as where one party is serving overseas. Most state…
- proxy solicitationA request that a shareholder authorize someone else to cast their vote at a company meeting.
- proxy statementA document accompanying a proxy solicitation that explains the action, such as a merger, the company proposes to take.
- PRPA potentially responsible party: someone who may be liable for cleaning up a contaminated site.
- prudentCareful and judicious in one's dealings.
- prudent personThe hypothetical person the law measures conduct against, above all in deciding negligence: one who acts sensibly, wi…
- prudent-investor ruleIn trusts law, the rule that a trustee must invest as a prudent investor would, judging each investment as part of th…
- prurienceA shameful or morbid interest in sex.
- prurientAppealing to a shameful or morbid interest in sex, one of the elements of legal obscenity.
- pseudo-foreign-corporation statuteA state law regulating foreign corporations that either earn a large share of their income in the state or have a lar…
- pseudo-guarantee treatyAn agreement between countries that creates, directly or indirectly, a one-way or mutual guarantee.
- pseudographA false writing: a forgery.
- pseudonymA fictitious name or identity.
- PSIA probation officer's detailed account of a convicted defendant's education, criminal record, family, and background,…
- psychopathA person with a mental disorder marked by an extremely antisocial personality, often leading to aggressive or crimina…
- psychotherapist-client privilegeA privilege by which a person may prevent disclosure of a confidential communication made in the course of diagnosing…
- psychotherapist-patient privilegeA privilege by which a person may prevent disclosure of a confidential communication made in the course of diagnosing…
- PTIAn S corporation's undistributed taxable income taxed to the shareholders at the end of the corporation's tax year, w…
- PTOThe Commerce Department agency that examines patent and trademark applications, grants patents, registers trademarks,…
- PTPA partnership whose interests are traded over the counter or on an exchange. Such partnerships are taxed as corporati…
- publicBelonging to a whole community, state, or nation; also open to all to use or enjoy, or, of a company, having shares a…
- public access to court electronic recordsA computer system through which subscribers can get information online from the federal courts, including the docket…
- public accommodationA business supplying lodging, food, entertainment, or similar services to the public, above all one that affects inte…
- public administrationIn some jurisdictions, an administration by an officer appointed to wind up the estate of someone who died without a…
- public administratorA state-appointed officer who winds up intestate estates that the deceased's relatives do not administer. This right…
- public advocateAn advocate who claims to speak for the public at large on matters of general concern, such as utility rates or the q…
- public affairsThe affairs of a community or state that concern the public generally.
- public agencyA government body carrying out a public function, whether at national, state, or local level.
- public agentSomeone appointed to act for the public in matters of government administration or public business.
- public appointmentThe naming of a person, above all a non-elected official, to a public job or duty.
- public attorneyA lawyer employed by the government, as opposed to one in private practice.
- public authorityA body created by statute to carry out a public function, such as a transit or housing authority.
- public billA bill concerning public policy affecting the community at large.
- public boundaryA natural feature marking where a boundary line begins.
- public buildingA building open to the public, above all one owned by the government.
- public carrierA carrier bound by law to take passengers or goods without refusal, once the approved fare or charge is paid.
- public characterA person who has become famous or notorious, or who has voluntarily entered a public controversy. Such a person suing…
- public contractA contract that involves public money but may be carried out by private people and may benefit them.
- public controversyA dispute over matters debated in public and having real consequences for people beyond those directly involved. Some…
- public corporationA corporation whose shares are traded among the public at large. The term also covers a corporation the state creates…
- public debtA debt owed by a municipal, state, or national government.
- public defenderA lawyer, or an office of lawyers, appointed at public expense to represent criminal defendants who cannot afford cou…
- public delictA wrong for which the community as a whole takes steps to punish the offender.
- public disclosure of private factsThe revealing of some aspect of a person's private life without any legitimate public purpose. It is actionable in to…
- public documentA document of public interest issued or published by a public body or otherwise connected with public business.
- public domainGovernment-owned land; also the body of publications, inventions, and processes no longer protected by copyright or p…
- public easementAn easement for the benefit of a whole community, such as the right to use a street or sidewalk.
- public enemyA notorious criminal who is a menace to society, especially one who seems beyond successful prosecution; also, a stat…
- public entityA government body, such as a state government or one of its political subdivisions.
- public factIn an invasion-of-privacy claim, a fact that already appears in a public record or is otherwise in the public domain.
- public figureA person who has become famous or notorious, or who has voluntarily entered a public controversy. Such a person suing…
- public forumPublic property where people have traditionally gathered to express ideas and exchange views. Government regulation o…
- public fundMoney belonging to a government, raised by taxation or otherwise, and held for public purposes.
- public grantA grant of land or of a privilege made by the government to a private person.
- public healthThe health of the community at large, and the body of law and administration concerned with protecting and improving it.
- public highwayA road or way open to everyone, whether on land, on water, or in the air; above all a publicly maintained road that a…
- public houseA tavern or inn licensed to sell alcoholic drink to the public.
- public institutionAn established organization of a public character, such as a facility for treating people with mental disabilities.
- public interestThe general welfare of the public, which warrants recognition and protection; also something in which the public at l…
- public international lawThe body of rules governing relations between states, and increasingly between states and individuals, drawn from tre…
- public intoxicationBeing visibly under the influence of drink or drugs in a place open to the public. Most American jurisdictions treat…
- public inviteeAn invitee asked onto property for the very purpose for which the property is held open to the public.
- public landLand belonging to the federal or a state government that has not been appropriated to any use: the general public dom…
- public lawA public law, cited by its number and the volume of the Statutes at Large in which it appears.
- public marketA market open to buyers and sellers alike.
- public ministerA senior diplomat such as an ambassador, envoy, or resident minister, but not a commercial officer such as a consul.
- public moralityThe moral beliefs a society holds in common; also a person's ideals or conduct so far as they affect other people.
- public necessityNotice given to the public, or to those affected, by publishing it in a newspaper of general circulation.
- public noticeNotice given to the public, or to those affected, by publishing it in a newspaper of general circulation. The law usu…
- public nuisanceAn unreasonable interference with a right belonging to the public at large, such as a condition dangerous to health,…
- public offenseAn act or omission the law forbids and punishes as a wrong against the community.
- public offeringAn offering of securities to the public at large, made under a registration statement.
- public officeA position whose holder has legal authority to exercise part of a government's sovereign power for a fixed term.
- public officialA person elected or appointed to exercise some part of a government's sovereign power.
- public passageThe public's right to pass over a body of water, whether the land beneath it is publicly or privately owned.
- public personA sovereign government, or a body or person to whom it has delegated authority.
- public policyThe principles the legislature or the courts treat as fundamental to the state and to society as a whole. Courts appe…
- public pondIn Maine and Massachusetts, a body of water larger than ten acres, which for that reason belongs to the public.
- public powerA power held by a person as an agent or instrument of the state, taking in the various forms of legislative, judicial…
- public propertyProperty owned by the state or the community and not set aside for any one person's use.
- public prosecutorA public official, appointed or elected, who represents the state in criminal cases in a particular district.
- public purposeAction by or at the direction of a government for the benefit of the community as a whole.
- public recordA record a government body must keep by law, such as land deeds at a county courthouse. Such records are generally op…
- public relationsThe business of building and keeping a company's good public image; also that image itself.
- public reprimandA reprimand that is published, usually in a bar journal or legal newspaper.
- public rightA right belonging to all citizens, usually vested in and exercised by a public officer or body.
- public safetyThe welfare and protection of the general public, usually treated as a responsibility of government.
- public saleA sale made after public notice, as at an auction or a sheriff's sale.
- public schoolA school established under state law, run by local authorities, funded by taxation, and open free of charge to all ch…
- public sealA seal used to certify documents of a public authority or government office.
- public sectorThe part of the economy under government control.
- public securityA negotiable or transferable security evidencing a government debt.
- public serviceA service the government provides or arranges for the public's convenience and benefit; also employment by the govern…
- public servitudeA servitude belonging to the public at large or to an indeterminate class, such as the public's right to a highway ac…
- public statuteA statute affecting the public generally, as opposed to one aimed at a particular person or place.
- public stockStock of a company whose shares are publicly traded.
- public storeA government warehouse, as for storing imported goods or military supplies.
- public tortA minor breach of the law, such as a parking violation, which carries a penalty but counts as civil rather than crimi…
- public trustA trust created for the benefit of a charity or of the public at large rather than for private individuals. Such trus…
- public useIn property law, the public benefit that must be shown to justify taking private property by eminent domain.
- public use in patent lawIn patent law, any use of a completed invention in the open, in its natural and intended way. A patent is invalid if…
- public utilityA company supplying necessary services to the public, such as telephone, electricity, or water. Most operate as monop…
- public utility districtA publicly owned corporation or political subdivision that supplies the public with a service such as water, electric…
- Public Utility Holding Company ActA federal law of 1935 protecting investors and consumers from the abuses of the few holding companies that then owned…
- public verdictA verdict the jury delivers in open court.
- public vesselA vessel a nation owns and uses in its public service, whether in the navy, the revenue service, or otherwise.
- Public Vessels ActA federal law of 1925 allowing claims against the United States for damage caused by one of its vessels.
- public warA war between two nations fought under the authority of their governments.
- public waterWater fit for navigation or otherwise open to public use.
- public welfareA society's well-being in matters of health, safety, order, morality, and economic life.
- public wharfA structure on navigable water, open to all, at which vessels may load and unload.
- public worksStructures such as roads and dams built by the government for public use and paid for out of public funds.
- public worshipWorship conducted by a religious body according to its own rules and ritual; also worship in a place open to the publ…
- public wrongAn offense against the state or the community at large, dealt with in a proceeding to which the state itself is a par…
- public-benefit corporationA government-owned corporation that carries on activities for the public benefit while remaining financially independ…
- public-convenience-and-necessity standardA test a government body commonly applies in deciding whether a proposed project or licence would serve the public.
- public-duty doctrineIn tort law, the rule that a government body cannot be held liable to an individual for an officer's breach of a duty…
- public-exchange offerA takeover attempt in which the bidding company offers to swap some of its own securities for a stated number of the…
- public-function doctrineIn a civil-rights suit, the doctrine that a private person's acts count as state action where they perform a function…
- public-function rationaleThe principle treating private conduct as state action, above all for due-process and equal-protection purposes, wher…
- public-function testIn a civil-rights suit, the test treating a private person's acts as state action where they perform a function tradi…
- public-interest exceptionThe rule that an appellate court may decide a moot case, though it usually may not, where the question is of consider…
- public-liability insuranceAn agreement to cover a loss arising from the insured's liability to someone else, as where a driver injures a pedest…
- public-meeting lawA statute requiring a government department or agency to open its meetings or its records to the public.
- public-policy limitationIn tax law, the judge-made principle that a person may not deduct the expenses of an activity contrary to the public…
- public-service commissionA body a legislature creates to regulate public utilities and other companies serving the public.
- public-service corporationA corporation whose business meets a general public need, such as transport, communications, gas, water, or electrici…
- public-trust doctrineThe principle that navigable waters are held for the public's use, and that the state must protect the public's right…
- public-use barIn patent law, the rule barring a patent for an invention that was publicly used or sold in the United States more th…
- public-welfare offenseA minor offense involving no moral fault, created simply to make regulation effective in the community's interest, su…
- public, true, and notoriousIn church law, the words closing each allegation in a court petition.
- publicanA person licensed to keep a public house where alcoholic drink is sold.
- publicanusIn Roman law, a farmer of the public revenue: a tax collector.
- publicationAnnouncing something to the public. In copyright law, the distributing of copies of a work to the public. Publication…
- publicistA public-relations person; also a scholar of international law.
- publicly held corporationA company whose shares are traded among the general public.
- publicly traded partnershipA partnership whose interests are traded over the counter or on an exchange. Such partnerships are taxed as corporati…
- publishTo distribute copies of a work to the public; also to communicate defamatory words to someone other than the person d…
- PUCA public utilities commission: the state body that regulates utilities.
- PUDAn area zoned as a single planned community, with flexible limits on residential, commercial, and public uses within it.
- pudzeldMoney paid for the right to take wood from a forest; also freedom from having to pay it.
- puebloA town or village, above all in the southwestern United States.
- puerA child, above all a boy; in Roman law, also a young male slave.
- puerilityA child's stage between infancy and puberty.
- pueritiaChildhood, reckoned in Roman law up to the age of seventeen, the earliest age for pleading before a magistrate.
- pufferA person the seller employs at an auction to bid on the property solely to draw out higher bids from genuine buyers.
- puffingExaggerated praise of goods or services offered as opinion rather than as fact. Some leeway is allowed, but a seller…
- PUHCAA federal law of 1935 protecting investors and consumers from the abuses of the few holding companies that then owned…
- puisAfterwards, or since.
- puisne judgeA junior judge: one holding no special title or distinction. English common-law courts once used the term for any jud…
- puisne mortgageA mortgage ranking behind another on the same property.
- Pullman abstentionA federal court's decision to hold off so that the state courts can first settle an unclear point of state law, since…
- pulsareTo accuse or charge someone, or to proceed against them at law.
- puniesInformally, punitive damages.
- punishTo impose a penalty on someone for an offense.
- punishableOf a person, liable to punishment; of a crime, carrying a stated punishment.
- punishmentA sanction such as a fine, confinement, or loss of property or privilege, imposed on a person who has broken the law.
- punitiveInvolving or inflicting punishment.
- punitive articlesIn military law, the articles of the Uniform Code of Military Justice that define the offenses triable in the militar…
- punitive damagesDamages awarded on top of compensation where the defendant acted recklessly, maliciously, or deceitfully. They are me…
- punitive segregationThe removing of a prisoner from the general population into separate or solitary confinement, usually as a disciplina…
- punitive statuteA law defining an offense and fixing the fine or punishment for it.
- punitoryInvolving or inflicting punishment.
- punitory damagesDamages awarded on top of actual damages where the defendant acted with recklessness, malice, or deceit, meant to pun…
- pupillary substitutionIn Roman law, the naming of someone to take as heir in place of a descendant who was under the age of puberty and in…
- pupillusA child under the age of puberty and under the authority of a tutor.
- pur tant queForasmuch as, or to the intent that.
- purchaseBuying something; also, in property law, acquiring land by anyone's act, such as a gift or a will, rather than by inh…
- purchase accounting methodA way of accounting for mergers in which the total paid for the acquired firm's assets goes onto the buyer's books, a…
- purchase agreementA contract of sale.
- purchase moneyThe money paid toward the price of property that a mortgage secures.
- purchase orderA document authorizing a seller to deliver goods, payment to be made later.
- purchase-money interestA security interest arising where the lender's money is used to buy the collateral and the buyer at once gives the le…
- purchase-money mortgageA mortgage the buyer gives the seller when the property is conveyed, to secure the unpaid part of the price.
- purchase-money resulting trustA resulting trust arising where one person pays for property but has the seller convey it to another. The person who…
- purchase-money security interestA security interest arising where the lender's money is used to buy the collateral and the buyer at once gives the le…
- purchase, words ofWords in a deed or will naming who is to take the grant, as opposed to words of limitation, which mark out the size o…
- purchaserA person who obtains property for money or other value: a buyer.
- purchaser for valueA buyer who gave consideration for the property.
- purchaser in good faithA person who buys something for value without notice of anyone else's claim to it or of any defect in the seller's ti…
- pure accidentAn accident that could not have been avoided, being caused by a force no human skill or foresight could resist, such…
- pure annuityAn annuity guaranteeing payments for the annuitant's life, with nothing refunded to anyone on death.
- pure easementAn easement created for the benefit of another piece of land, its use going with the ownership of that land.
- pure obligationIn Scots law, an absolute obligation already due and enforceable at once.
- pure pleaAn equitable plea putting forward new matter outside the bill which, if proved, ends the dispute by having the suit d…
- pure race statuteA recording statute under which whoever records first takes priority, whether or not they knew of an earlier unrecord…
- pure riskA risk that can only cause loss and offers no chance of gain, such as the risk of fire or theft, as opposed to a spec…
- pure speechWords, or conduct limited to what is needed to convey the idea. It receives the fullest constitutional protection.
- pure theoryHans Kelsen's philosophy, which holds that a legal system should be described purely in terms of legal norms, strippe…
- pure villeinageVilleinage in which the services owed were uncertain, the tenant being bound to do whatever was commanded whenever th…
- pure-comparative-negligence doctrineThe rule that liability is divided according to the share of fault the factfinder assigns to each party, so that a cl…
- purgationThe clearing of oneself of a crime or accusation by oath or by ordeal.
- purgatory oathAn oath taken to clear oneself of a charge or suspicion.
- purgeTo clear oneself or another of guilt.
- purpartA share of an estate formerly held in common: a part taken on a division.
- purpartyA share of an estate allotted to a coparcener.
- purportThe meaning a document conveys on its face.
- purposeAn objective or aim; in company law, the business a corporation is chartered to carry on.
- purpose approachIn statutory construction, the approach that starts by identifying the mischief the statute was passed to cure and th…
- purpose clauseAn opening clause in a statute explaining its background and the reasons for enacting it.
- purposive constructionReading a statute in the light of the mischief it was passed to cure, so as to give effect to what it was meant to ac…
- purprestureAn encroachment on public rights by taking to private use what belongs to the public, such as building on a highway.
- purpriseTo encroach unlawfully on public land.
- purseA sum of money available to the winner of a contest: a prize.
- purserThe officer in charge of a ship's accounts and papers.
- pursuant toIn accordance with, or as authorized by.
- pursuitAn occupation or pastime; also the chasing of someone in order to catch them.
- pursuit of happinessThe principle announced in the Declaration of Independence that a person should be free to pursue their own ends, abo…
- purviewThe scope or field of application of something; also the body of a statute following its preamble.
- putAn option to sell something, above all securities, at a fixed price however far the market falls: the right to make a…
- put bondA bond the holder may redeem at full value at specified dates before maturity.
- put inTo place something before a court in due form, or among its records.
- put optionAn option to sell something, above all securities, at a fixed price however far the market falls: the right to make a…
- put priceThe price at which a security will be sold under a put option if the option is exercised.
- putative fatherThe man said to be the biological father of a child born outside marriage.
- putative marriageA marriage the couple honestly believe to be valid but which fails on some technical ground, as where the officiant h…
- putative spouseA person who genuinely believes their invalid marriage to be lawful.
- puttableOf a security, one the holder may require the issuer to buy back.
- putting in fearThreatening a person with violence so as to make them hand over property. The phrase forms part of the common-law def…
- pyramid distribution planA scheme in which a participant pays for the chance to earn money by recruiting new members, and by the recruits' own…
- pyramid schemeA scheme in which a participant pays for the chance to earn money by recruiting new members, and by the recruits' own…
- pyramidingA speculative way of financing a large purchase of stock, or a controlling stake, by pledging the unrealized profit o…
- pyramiding inferences, rule againstIn the law of evidence, the rule forbidding a factfinder to build one inference on another to reach a conclusion. Few…