Terms beginning with Q
204 headwords
- QQuestion: the abbreviation used in deposition and trial transcripts before each question the examining lawyer asks.
- Q-and-AThe part of a deposition or trial transcript in which the evidence comes out through the lawyer's questions and the w…
- Q.BKing's Bench, formerly Queen's Bench.
- Q.B.DThe King's Bench Division of the High Court, formerly the Queen's Bench Division.
- Q.CKing's Counsel, formerly Queen's Counsel: a senior barrister appointed by the Crown.
- Q.DAs if one should say: a phrase introducing an explanation of a term.
- Q.E.DWhich was to be demonstrated: the phrase closing a proof.
- Q.E.NWhy execution should not issue: the question put in an order to show cause before a judgment is enforced.
- QDROA qualified domestic-relations order, which directs part of a person's retirement benefits to a former spouse or child.
- QTIP trustA trust set up to pass assets to a surviving spouse on the first spouse's death. The property counts as part of the s…
- quaIn the capacity of: as.
- quacumque via dataWhichever way you take it.
- quadragesimaLent, so called because it runs about forty days; also the first Sunday of Lent.
- quadragesimalsOfferings made on Mid-Lent Sunday by daughter churches to the mother church.
- quadrienniumIn Roman law, the four-year course of study law students had to complete before they were allowed to study the imperi…
- quadriennium utileIn Scots law, the four years after coming of age within which a young adult may seek to set aside a contract made whi…
- quadripartiteOf a document, drawn or executed in four parts.
- quadruplatorAn informer who could bring criminal proceedings carrying a fourfold penalty and take a share of it as reward.
- quadruplicatioIn civil-law pleading, a fourth pleading: the party's answer to the third.
- quae est eademWhich is the same: words a defendant used in trespass to show that the act they justified was the very one the claima…
- quaereInquire, or query: a word used in a case report to mark a point as doubtful or open to question.
- quaerensA person who complains: a claimant.
- quaerens nihil capiat per billamFormerly, let the claimant take nothing by his bill: a form of judgment for the defendant.
- quaerens non invenit plegiumFormerly, a sheriff's return that the claimant found no surety for prosecuting the claim.
- quaestaRemissions of penance the Pope allowed to those who gave a certain sum to the church.
- quaestioIn Roman law, an inquiry, above all a criminal investigation conducted by a magistrate.
- quaestionariusA person licensed to collect alms and grant indulgences: a pardoner.
- quaestiones perpetuaeIn Roman law, standing commissions set up to try criminal cases.
- quaestorIn Roman law, an officer who looked after the public money, making payments, receiving revenue, keeping the accounts,…
- quaestor sacri palatiiAn officer of the imperial court who acted as the emperor's legal adviser.
- quaestusIn Roman law, profit, above all from a business. In older usage, an estate acquired by purchase, as distinguished fro…
- qualificationThe having of the qualities the law requires for a position, office, or duty; also a limitation placed on words that…
- qualifiedHaving the necessary qualifications; also limited or restricted.
- qualified acceptanceAn acceptance that is conditional or partial and changes the terms of the offer, so operating as a counteroffer. With…
- qualified disclaimerA refusal to accept an interest in property, made so as to avoid estate or gift tax. Under federal tax law it must be…
- qualified domestic-relations orderA state-court order about alimony, child support, or another family matter that gives a former spouse or child the ri…
- qualified electorA person who meets the requirements of age, residence, and registration and has the present right to vote.
- qualified estateAny estate that is not absolute and unconditional; a limited or conditional estate.
- qualified feeAn estate in fee that may end on the happening of a stated event, so that the owner's title is not absolute.
- qualified general denialA denial of all the allegations except those the pleader expressly admits.
- qualified immunityA public official's freedom from civil liability for discretionary acts, so long as the conduct does not violate clea…
- qualified indorsementAn indorsement that passes title but shuts off the indorser's liability to later holders if the instrument is dishono…
- qualified institutional buyerIn securities law, an institution holding more than $100 million in invested assets, which may buy certain securities…
- qualified martial lawGovernment carried on partly by military authorities, so that some but not all civil authority is pushed aside.
- qualified nuisanceA condition lawful in itself but so carelessly allowed to continue that it creates an unreasonable risk and in time c…
- qualified opinionAn auditor's report that takes exception to particular items in the financial statements it accompanies.
- qualified ownershipOwnership that is shared with others, confined to a particular use, or otherwise limited in what the owner may do.
- qualified pension planA pension plan that complies with federal pension law, so that contributions and investment growth receive favorable…
- qualified privilegeA privilege that protects a person from suit only where it is properly used in performing a legal or moral duty.
- qualified profit-sharing planA plan under which the employer's contributions are not taxed to the employee until they are paid out, while the empl…
- qualified propertyA temporary or limited interest in a thing, such as a right to possess it, which ends altogether if a stated event oc…
- qualified residence interestIn tax law, interest on a debt secured by the taxpayer's home and taken on to buy, build, improve, or refinance it. S…
- qualified stock optionA now-rare stock-option plan letting a person buy stock over a period at the market price, with the stock taxed as a…
- qualified vetoA veto that stands unless an extraordinary majority of the legislature overrides it. The President of the United Stat…
- qualified voterA person who meets the requirements of age, residence, and registration and has the present right to vote; also such…
- qualified witnessA witness who can explain how a company's records are made and kept, and so lay the foundation for admitting them und…
- qualified-terminable-interest propertyProperty passing under a trust from a dead spouse to the survivor which, if the executor so elects, qualifies for the…
- qualifiedlyIn a qualified or limited way.
- qualifying eventOne of the events that would otherwise end a person's health coverage, and which instead triggers the right to contin…
- qualifying shareA share bought so that the buyer can become a director of a company whose rules require directors to hold shares.
- qualityThe particular character or properties of a person or thing; also the degree of excellence of something compared with…
- quality of estateThe time at which the owner may enjoy an estate, whether now or in future, and the manner of that enjoyment, whether…
- quality-of-products legislationA statute protecting consumers who buy goods of inferior quality, by implying standards the goods must meet.
- quamdiuAs long as: a word of limitation once used in conveyances.
- quamdiu bene se gesserintAs long as they shall conduct themselves properly: the tenure on which a judge or other officer holds office during g…
- quangoA semi-public body, above all in the United Kingdom, some of whose members the government appoints and finances but w…
- quantitative ruleA rule of evidence that a given kind of evidence will not suffice unless something further supports it, imposed becau…
- quantity discountA reduction in price given for buying in large quantity.
- quantumThe amount required, desired, or allowed: a portion or share.
- quantum meruitAs much as one has earned: the reasonable value of services rendered, and the claim brought to recover it. It survive…
- quantum valebantAs much as they were worth: the reasonable value of goods supplied, and the claim brought to recover it.
- quarantina habendaFormerly, a writ ordering a sheriff to give a widow possession of part of her husband's estate, where she had been wr…
- quarantineThe isolating of people, animals, or ships suspected of carrying a dangerous contagious disease, so as to stop it spr…
- quareWhy, or for what reason: a word opening various common-law writs, above all in trespass.
- quare clausum fregitWhy he broke the close: the form of action for trespass to land.
- quare incumbravitA writ requiring a bishop to explain why he had filled a benefice with his own clerk while two others were contending…
- quare obstruxitFormerly, a writ for someone prevented from using a right of way because a neighbor had blocked the path.
- quarentena terraeFormerly, a furlong.
- quarentineThe isolating of people, animals, or ships suspected of carrying a dangerous contagious disease, so as to stop it spr…
- quarrelAn angry dispute between people; in older usage, a complaint or a legal action.
- quarterIn the law of war, the sparing of a defeated enemy's life and the accepting of a surrender.
- quarter dayOne of the four days in the year on which money such as rent was legally or customarily payable.
- quarter sealA seal kept in the Scottish chancery, originally a quarter of the great seal, used on particular grants from the Crown.
- quarter sectionA piece of land of 160 acres, being one quarter of a section and laid out by north-south and east-west lines. It was…
- quarter sessionIn England, the sittings held four times a year by a county's justices of the peace to do county business and try cer…
- Quarter Sessions CourtA court of general quarter sessions of the peace: a court of criminal jurisdiction that met four times a year.
- quarteringThe cutting of an executed criminal's body into quarters, once part of the punishment for high treason; also the hous…
- quarterly reportA financial report a company issues every three months.
- quarters of coverageThe number of quarterly contributions a person has made into the social-security fund, on which their entitlement to…
- quarto die postThe rule that a defendant summoned to court was allowed three days of grace and could appear on the fourth day.
- quashTo annul or set aside; also to suppress or put down.
- quashalThe setting aside of something.
- quasiSeemingly but not actually: resembling, or nearly.
- quasi in remAs if against a thing: describing jurisdiction that reaches a person only through their interest in property within t…
- quasi possessionPossession of something other than a physical object, such as an easement over a neighbor's land or a right of light…
- quasi traditioIn Roman law, the acquiring of a servitude by using it with the owner’s informal permission or acquiescence.
- quasi-admissionSomething said or done, usually outside court, that is inconsistent with and to some degree undermines a claim the sa…
- quasi-affinityThe relationship between two people where one has been engaged to a relative of the other.
- quasi-contractAn obligation the law imposes because of how the parties behaved, because of a special relationship between them, or…
- quasi-corporationA body that performs some of the functions of a corporation without having been given corporate status by statute, es…
- quasi-crimeAn offense not prosecuted as a crime, such as contempt or breach of a local ordinance, but for which a penalty or for…
- quasi-delictIn Roman law, an offense for which someone other than the actual wrongdoer is held responsible, as a master for what…
- quasi-depositA deposit arising against the depositary's will, as where someone comes lawfully to hold property simply by finding it.
- quasi-derelictA ship abandoned temporarily or against the crew's will, as where those aboard are dead or unable to navigate her.
- quasi-domicileA domicile a company from outside the state acquires by doing enough business there for its property or activities to…
- quasi-easementA right resembling an easement that exists while both pieces of land belong to the same owner, and that may become a…
- quasi-enclaveA part of a country's territory that, though not wholly surrounded by foreign land, cannot be reached from the rest o…
- quasi-entailAn estate for another's life granted to a person and the heirs of their body. It is not strictly an estate tail, sinc…
- quasi-estoppelAn equitable rule stopping a person from going back on an act or statement where doing so would harm someone who reas…
- quasi-feeAn estate in fee obtained wrongfully.
- quasi-governmental agencyA government-sponsored enterprise or corporation, such as the Federal National Mortgage Association.
- quasi-guarantee treatyAn agreement between countries that creates, directly or indirectly, a one-way or mutual guarantee.
- quasi-guardianA person who acts as a guardian without having been lawfully appointed, and whom the law holds to a guardian's duties.
- quasi-in-rem jurisdictionA court's power resting on the defendant's interest in property within the state, which lets it decide claims against…
- quasi-insurerA service provider held to strict liability for the service given, such as an innkeeper or a common carrier.
- quasi-judicialHaving to do with an executive or administrative official's acts of deciding. Such acts often settle citizens' basic…
- quasi-judicial actA judicial act performed by an officer who is not a judge; also an act a judge performs otherwise than in a strictly…
- quasi-judicial powerAn administrative agency's power to decide the rights of those who appear before it.
- quasi-legislativeNot purely legislative, but resembling legislation in effect.
- quasi-legislative powerAn administrative agency's power to make rules.
- quasi-municipal corporationA public body of limited powers, such as a county or school district, that carries out some of a corporation's functi…
- quasi-national domicileThe state in which a person resides, as distinguished from their national domicile or their domicile in a particular…
- quasi-offenseA negligent unlawful act causing loss or injury and giving rise to a claim for damages: the civil law's counterpart t…
- quasi-partnerA person who joins others in a venture that looks like a partnership but is not, such as a joint adventurer.
- quasi-personaltyThings the law treats as movable although they are attached to land, whether physically, like a fixture, or notionall…
- quasi-possessionPossession of something other than a physical object, such as an easement over a neighbor's land or a right of light…
- quasi-posthumous childA child born after the death of someone other than the father, such as a grandfather, whose will or estate the birth…
- quasi-public corporationA profit-making corporation providing an essential public service, such as an electricity company or other utility.
- quasi-pupillary substitutionIn Roman law, the naming of someone to take as heir in place of a descendant who was permanently insane, if that desc…
- quasi-realtyThings the law treats as attached to land although they are themselves movable, such as title deeds.
- quasi-seisinA copyholder's possession of land, the freehold possession remaining in the lord.
- quasi-suspect classificationA statutory distinction based on sex or on birth outside marriage, which is therefore subject to intermediate scrutin…
- quasi-tenantA subtenant whom the new tenant or reversioner allows to stay on after the head tenancy ends.
- quasi-tortA wrong that is not strictly a tort but for which the law gives a like remedy, above all where liability falls on som…
- quasi-trusteeA person who takes so great a benefit from a breach of trust that the law holds them liable as though they were a tru…
- quasi-usufructA right to use up things that cannot be used without being consumed, such as money or food. Unlike an ordinary usufru…
- queenA woman who holds sovereign power in her own right; also the wife of a reigning king, who has certain prerogatives bu…
- queen dowagerThe widow of a king.
- queen motherThe mother of a reigning sovereign, herself the widow of a king.
- querelaA complaint, or a claimant's declaration; also a cause of action, and in Roman law an action.
- querela coram regeFormerly, a writ ordering a person to appear before the king to answer for a trespass.
- querela inofficiosi testamentiIn Roman law, an action letting a descendant, ascendant, or sibling who had been unjustly disinherited or passed over…
- questaAn inquest or inquiry made on the oaths of an empaneled jury.
- questionA query put to a witness.
- question of factAn issue about what actually happened, to be decided from the evidence.
- question of lawAn issue about what the law is, to be decided by the judge.
- question-and-answerThe part of a deposition or trial transcript in which the evidence comes out through the lawyer's questions and the w…
- questmanA person who stirs up a lawsuit or prosecution; also one chosen to inquire into abuses, above all in a parish.
- questus est nobisFormerly, a writ against someone who kept up a nuisance that had begun before they inherited or bought the land. Earl…
- qui improvideImprovidently: describing something granted or done without due care or consideration.
- quiaBecause, or whereas: a word once used to introduce the consideration in a conveyance.
- Quia EmptoresA statute of 1290 letting tenants in fee simple, other than those holding directly of the Crown, sell their land, the…
- quia-timet injunctionAn injunction granted to head off an act that has been threatened but has not yet invaded the plaintiff's rights.
- quick assetCash and other current assets apart from inventory.
- quick condemnationThe immediate taking of private property for public use, with an estimate of fair compensation paid into escrow until…
- quick dispatchUnloading carried out as quickly as possible rather than strictly according to the customs of the port, especially to…
- quick ratioThe ratio of an entity's liquid assets, such as cash and receivables, to its current liabilities, used to gauge wheth…
- quick-asset ratioThe ratio of an entity's liquid assets, such as cash and receivables, to its current liabilities.
- quickeningThe first movement of the fetus that the mother feels, usually about the middle of pregnancy.
- quickie strikeA strike the union has not authorized, or one called in breach of a collective agreement.
- quid pro quoOne thing given in exchange for another of roughly equal value.
- quid pro quo sexual harassmentSexual harassment in which giving in to a sexual demand is made the basis of an employment decision, as where a manag…
- quidamSomebody: used above all in French law for a person whose name is unknown.
- quietTo settle or silence; also to make a right or title secure by removing the disputes that cloud it.
- quiet diplomacyDiplomacy carried on privately, away from publicity.
- quiet enjoymentThe holding of land with the assurance that no one with a better title will disturb the possession.
- quiet-title actionA lawsuit brought to settle competing claims to land and establish the claimant's title against everyone else.
- quietareTo acquit, discharge, or hold harmless: a word once used in conveyances.
- quiete clamareFormerly, to quitclaim: to give up all pretension of right and title.
- quietusDischarged, above all from a debt or from serving as an executor; also the discharge itself, once given by an Exchequ…
- Quinquaginta DecisionesJustinian's fifty rulings settling disputed questions and sweeping away obsolete rules, made in preparation for the D…
- quinquepartiteDivided into five parts.
- quintalA weight of a hundred pounds.
- quiritarianIn Roman law, resting on the strict civil law of the Roman citizens, as opposed to what the praetor allowed in equity.
- quitAcquitted, free, or discharged.
- quit rentA payment a freeholder or copyholder made to a feudal lord, so called because on paying it the tenant went quit and f…
- quitclaimA formal giving up of one's claim or right.
- quitclaim deedA deed passing whatever interest or claim the seller has in the land, without warranting or even asserting that the t…
- quittanceA release from a debt or obligation, and the document evidencing it.
- quo jureA writ by which a landholder could compel someone claiming common over the land to prove their title.
- quo warrantoA writ inquiring by what authority a person holds a public office or claims a franchise; also an action by which a st…
- quoadAs regards, or with respect to.
- quoad sacraAs to sacred things: used of land so far from its own parish that it was annexed to a nearer one for worship, while r…
- quod billa casseturThat the bill be quashed: the form of judgment upholding a plea in abatement where the action began by bill rather th…
- quod clerici non eliganturFormerly, a writ exempting a clerk from being made to serve as bailiff, beadle, reeve, or other parish officer.
- quod computetThe first judgment in an action of account, ordering the defendant to render an account before auditors.
- quod cumFor that, or whereas: words that once introduced the explanation of a claim in common-law pleading.
- quod ei deforceatFormerly, a writ allowing the owner of a limited estate, such as a life estate or fee tail, to recover land lost by d…
- quod erat demonstrandumWhich was to be demonstrated: the phrase closing a proof.
- quod erat faciendumWhich was to be done: the phrase closing the working of a problem.
- quod fuit concessumWhich was granted: words used in old reports to show that the court accepted counsel's point.
- quod jussuIn Roman law, an action against the head of a household by someone who had contracted with a son or slave at the head…
- quod partitio fiatFormerly, the judgment in a partition suit ordering that the partition be made.
- quod permittatA writ to abate a nuisance, requiring the wrongdoer to permit the claimant to enjoy their right.
- quod recuperetFormerly, the ordinary judgment for a claimant in an action at law, which might be final or interlocutory depending o…
- quod si contingatThat if it happen: words once used to create a condition in a deed.
- quod voluit non dixitThat he did not say what he intended: a phrase used in argument about what a lawmaker or testator meant.
- quominusFormerly, an Exchequer writ pleading that the claimant had lent the defendant money and so could not pay a like debt…
- quorumThe least number of members, usually a majority, who must be present for a body to do business or take a vote.
- quotaA proportional share allotted to a person or group; also a quantitative limit, whether a floor or a ceiling.
- quotationA passage reproduced and attributed to its source; also the current price stated for a stock or commodity, or a contr…
- quotient verdictAn improper verdict a jury reaches by adding up each juror's figure for damages and dividing by the number of jurors.
- quousqueAs long as, or until: a word once used in conveyances to mark a limitation.
- quovis modoIn whatever manner.