Terms beginning with V
455 headwords
- vA defamatory statement is one that injures another's reputation by exposing them to hatred, contempt, or ridicule, or…
- VAThe federal department responsible for the benefits and health care of former members of the armed forces.
- VA mortgageA mortgage to a veteran that the Department of Veterans Affairs guarantees.
- vacancyThe state of an office or property being unoccupied, and the period during which it stays so. An officer's misconduct…
- vacancy clauseIn insurance law, an indorsement allowing premises to stand empty for longer than the policy would otherwise permit,…
- vacantEmpty or unoccupied. Courts have sometimes distinguished the two, treating vacant as wholly empty and unoccupied as m…
- vacant successionA succession that fails because no heirs are known or because those entitled have renounced it; also the estate left…
- vacantiaGoods that belong to no one, such as the property of a person who dies with neither will nor heirs, which pass to the…
- vacantia bonaOwnerless goods, which pass to the Crown or the state where nobody is entitled to claim them.
- vacateTo set aside or cancel.
- vacatioExemption, immunity, or dispensation.
- vacationThe vacating of something; also the period between one term of court and the next, when the court holds no sittings.…
- vacation barristerA counsel newly called to the bar, required to attend the exercises of the house for six long vacations.
- vacaturThe setting aside of a judgment or order, and the order by which it is set aside.
- vacua possessioIn Roman and civil law, free and unencumbered possession, which a seller must give the buyer.
- vadesPledges or sureties, above all security for a criminal defendant's appearance in court.
- vadiatioA wager, or the giving of a pledge.
- vadiatio duelliWager of battle: the old mode of trial in which the parties, or their champions, fought, the outcome being taken as t…
- vadimonyA guarantee, originally backed by sureties, that a litigant would appear in court, and the promise given to that effect.
- vadiumSecurity given by pledging property.
- vadium mortuumA dead pledge: a mortgage, so called because the land yielded the creditor nothing toward the debt, which therefore s…
- vadium ponereTo take bail for a person's appearance in court.
- vadium vivumA living pledge: an estate granted to a creditor until the debt is paid out of its profits, so called because neither…
- vagabondA homeless wanderer with no honest means of living. The word fell out of use during the twentieth century, as courts…
- vagabondageThe condition of being a vagabond; also vagabonds as a class.
- vagabundusA homeless wanderer with no honest means of living.
- vagrancyThe state of wandering from place to place without home, work, or means of support. It is generally treated as a way…
- vagrantOf or characteristic of a vagrant; wandering without a home.
- vagrantismThe state of wandering from place to place without home, work, or means of support.
- vagueImprecise or indistinct; of words, so broadly indefinite that their meaning is uncertain.
- vaguenessUncertainty about how far a word or rule reaches.
- vagueness doctrineThe rule, resting on the Due Process Clause, that a criminal statute must say plainly what conduct it forbids, so tha…
- valentiaValue or worth. The word often appeared in old indictments for larceny to state what the stolen goods were worth.
- validLegally sufficient and binding.
- valid agreementA contract that operates fully according to what the parties intended.
- valid contractA contract that works exactly as the parties meant it to.
- validating statuteA statute passed to cure defects in earlier acts or in things done under them, so that what would otherwise be invali…
- valise diplomatiqueThe diplomatic bag: a bag carrying official correspondence and articles between a state and its missions abroad, whic…
- valorValue or worth.
- valor maritagtiThe value of a marriage. Under the old tenures a guardian in chivalry might offer a ward a suitable match; if the war…
- valuableHaving real worth or market value.
- valuable considerationConsideration the law recognizes, giving one party a benefit that can be measured in money or imposing such a burden…
- valuable improvementAn improvement adding permanent value to the freehold, of a kind nobody but an owner would normally make. It may be m…
- valuable papersDocuments that matter after a person's death in carrying out their wishes and settling the estate, such as a will, ti…
- valuationThe working out of what something is worth, and the figure arrived at.
- valuation dateThe date six months after a death, as an alternative to the date of death for valuing the estate. The executor may ge…
- valuation listAn inventory of all the rateable property in a parish, giving for each entry the occupier, the owner, the property an…
- valueWhat something is worth: the amount of goods, services, or money it will command in exchange.
- value dateThe date on which the proceeds of a bill of exchange, or of a currency transaction, become available for use.
- value fundA mutual fund that buys shares its manager believes are priced below what they are really worth.
- value receivedWords in a note or bill acknowledging that consideration was given for it, which raise a presumption that it was.
- value-added taxA tax charged at each stage of production on the value added at that stage - the difference between what the producer…
- valued policyA policy fixing in advance the sum payable when a loss occurs. The agreed value settles the matter on a total loss an…
- valued-policy lawA statute requiring an insurer to pay the full sum insured on a total loss, whatever the property was actually worth…
- valuerAn impartial person who estimates what something is worth, such as land, jewelry, or rare books.
- valutaValue or worth, above all the worth of one currency against another.
- valvasorA vassal of the second rank, holding not directly of the sovereign but of one who did.
- vandalA person who maliciously destroys or defaces works of art, monuments, buildings, or other property.
- vandalismThe willful destruction or defacing of property, above all of things of artistic, architectural, or literary value.
- varaA Spanish-American measure of length of about thirty-three inches, varying somewhat by locality. In Mexican land gran…
- variable annuityAn annuity whose payments vary according to how well the underlying investments perform.
- variable annuity contractIn securities law, an annuity whose payments rise and fall with the performance of the fund, usually of common stocks…
- variable costA cost that rises and falls in the short run along with the amount produced.
- variable life insuranceLife insurance whose premiums are invested in securities, so that the death benefit rises and falls with their perfor…
- variable rateAn interest rate that changes at set intervals in step with a market rate, usually the prime rate.
- variable-rate mortgageA mortgage whose interest rate the lender may reset from time to time to track an outside market index.
- varianceA difference between two statements or documents that ought to agree, above all between what a charge alleges and wha…
- varrantizatioIn Scots law, a warranty.
- vasIn civil law, a pledge or surety, above all one given for a party in a legal proceeding.
- vassalThe holder of a fief: a feudal tenant.
- vassal stateIn international law, a state that has only such rights and privileges as a more powerful state has granted it.
- vassalageThe condition of being a vassal, the service a vassal owes, and the land held by one.
- vassaticumThe service a vassal owes.
- vasseleriaThe condition of being a vassal.
- vassusA feudal tenant holding directly of the king.
- vastoA writ of waste, by which a reversioner recovered against a tenant who had damaged the land.
- VATA tax charged at each stage of production on the value added at that stage, which works in the end like a sales tax o…
- vavasorThe vassal of a baron, who held under the baron and had subtenants of his own.
- VCA judge appointed to act for the chancellor, above all in a court of chancery.
- VCCThe court of a vice-chancellor.
- veal-moneyThe yearly rent tenants of a Wiltshire manor paid in place of the veal they had once rendered in kind.
- vectigalA tax paid to the state, above all a duty on imports or exports; also a yearly ground rent paid in money or in kind.
- vectigal judiciariumA tax or fine raised to meet the cost of maintaining the courts.
- vecturaFormerly, in maritime law, freight.
- vehicleAnything used to carry people or goods by land, water, or air.
- vehicularOf or relating to vehicles.
- vehicular homicideThe killing of another by driving in a criminally negligent or reckless way.
- veinIn mining law, a continuous body of mineral or mineralized rock filling a seam or fissure, marked off clearly from th…
- vejourOne of several people the court sent to inspect a place in question; also one sent to see whether a person excusing t…
- vel nonOr the absence of it: words used to put both possibilities in issue.
- venalOf a person, open to bribery, or ready to sell their services or influence for money; more broadly, for sale.
- vendTo transfer something for money or other value. The word is not usually used of land, though vendor and vendee are. I…
- vendeeA buyer, usually of land.
- vendee's lienA buyer’s lien on the land bought, securing repayment of purchase money already paid, enforceable if the seller does…
- vendee’s lienA buyer’s lien on land bought, securing repayment of the purchase money already paid if the seller cannot convey good…
- vendettaA private blood feud in which a family seeks revenge on someone outside it, above all for the killing of a relative.
- venditaeA tax on goods sold in markets and at public fairs.
- venditioA sale, or a contract of sale; more broadly, any contract by which ownership of something passes for value.
- venditionThe act of selling.
- venditioni exponasA writ of execution requiring goods already seized to be sold, issued to a sheriff who has levied under a writ of fie…
- venditorA seller, usually of land.
- vendorA seller, usually of land.
- vendor's lienA seller’s lien on land sold, securing the unpaid price. It may be foreclosed like a mortgage, and the buyer usually…
- vendor’s lienA seller’s lien on land sold, securing the price. It may be foreclosed like a mortgage, the buyer usually having a pe…
- vendueFormerly, a sale, above all a sale by public auction.
- vendue masterThe officer who conducted a public auction.
- venereal diseaseA disease passed on chiefly by sexual contact with an infected person, such as syphilis or gonorrhea.
- veniaPardon or leave, and the granting of an indulgence or privilege; in church usage, the kneeling or prostration of a pe…
- venia aetatisIn Roman and civil law, a privilege granted by the sovereign allowing a person under age to act as though of full age.
- venialOf a fault, pardonable.
- venireThe panel of people summoned for jury service, from whom the jurors are chosen; also the writ directing the sheriff t…
- venire de novoA writ summoning a fresh jury panel because of some irregularity in the first jury's return or verdict, so that no ju…
- venire faciasA writ directing the sheriff to summon a jury.
- venire facias ad respondendumA writ requiring a sheriff to summon a person indicted for a misdemeanor. A warrant is now used instead.
- venire facias de novoA writ summoning a fresh jury panel because of some irregularity in the first jury's return or verdict, so that no ju…
- venire facias tot matronasA writ requiring a sheriff to summon a jury of matrons to carry out a writ for inspecting a woman said to be pregnant.
- venirememberA person summoned as a possible juror: a member of the jury panel.
- venit et dicitComes and says: the old words by which a pleading opened, surviving in some American courts as “Now comes the plainti…
- venteIn French law, a sale, or a contract of sale.
- vente à réméréIn French law, a conditional sale in which the seller keeps the right to buy the property back at the same price. The…
- vente aléatoireIn French law, a sale that turns on an uncertain event.
- vente aux encheresA sale by auction.
- venterThe womb; also one of two or more women by whom the same man has had children, so that half-blood relations are said…
- ventre inspiciendoA writ allowing a presumptive heir to have a jury of matrons examine a widow suspected of pretending to be pregnant s…
- ventureAn undertaking involving risk, above all a speculative business enterprise.
- venture capitalMoney put into a new business that carries high risk and the prospect of a high return.
- venturerA person who risks something in a business enterprise.
- venueThe place where a case is to be tried, usually one connected with the events sued on; also the county or district ove…
- venue factsThe facts that must be shown at a hearing to decide whether venue lies in a particular court.
- venue, change ofThe moving of a lawsuit from one place to another, or from one court to another in the same district, usually so that…
- venvilleA tenure peculiar to Dartmoor in Devon, under which the tenants hold certain rights in the forest.
- veraciousTruthful.
- veracityTruthfulness and accuracy.
- verayTrue: an older form of the French vrai.
- verbaWords, above all spoken as opposed to written ones.
- verbalExpressed in words; loosely, expressed in spoken words.
- verbal actAn act carried out through words, whether spoken or written.
- verbal contractA contract, or a change to one, that is not in writing or is only partly in writing.
- verbal noteIn diplomacy, an unsigned memorandum informally reminding an official of a request still pending or a question still…
- verbal willAn oral will made in the expectation of imminent death from an injury just suffered. Most states no longer allow them.
- verbal-act doctrineThe rule that words spoken as part of conduct which itself has legal effect may be given in evidence where the conduc…
- verbatim ac litteratimWord for word and letter for letter.
- verbi gratiaFor example.
- verbruikleeningIn Roman-Dutch law, a loan of a thing for use, to be returned in kind.
- verdererAn officer of a royal forest charged with looking after the vert, the growing wood and undergrowth, and the venison.
- verdictA jury's finding on the questions of fact; loosely, in a trial without a jury, the judge's decision on those questions.
- verdict by lotA verdict, now unlawful, arrived at by chance or by drawing lots.
- verdict contrary to lawA verdict the jury had no authority in law to return, because the evidence did not justify the conclusion drawn.
- verdict subject to opinion of courtA verdict left to depend on the court's ruling on a point of law reserved at the trial, judgment being entered accord…
- veredictoNotwithstanding the verdict: words describing a judgment the court enters against the party the jury found for.
- veredictumA verdict: a declaration of the truth of the matter put to a jury.
- vergeFormerly, the area within twelve miles of the place where the king held court, within which the king’s peace was spec…
- vergerA person who carries a rod as the emblem of office, above all an attendant on a bishop or a judge.
- verificationA sworn statement that what a document says is true, made before an officer such as a notary; also the oath administe…
- verified copyA copy sworn or certified to be a true reproduction of the original, so that it may be used in evidence.
- verifierThe certificate an officer adds to an affidavit, stating when, where, and before whom it was sworn.
- veritasTruth. The word is also the name of an international body of marine underwriters that surveys and rates ships, founde…
- verityTruthfulness; conformity to fact.
- vermengingThe extinguishing of a debt when the positions of debtor and creditor come together in the same person, as on a merge…
- vernaA slave born in the owner's house.
- versariTo be employed in something, or conversant with it.
- versari in re illicitaTo be engaged in an unlawful activity, which may bar a claim for damages arising out of it.
- versusAgainst: the word linking the parties' names in the title of a case.
- vertical competitionCompetition between businesses at different levels of the chain of distribution, such as a manufacturer and a distrib…
- vertical integrationA company's bringing under one ownership the successive stages of making and selling a product, from raw material to…
- vertical mergerA merger between businesses at different stages of making and selling the same product, such as a manufacturer and a…
- vertical nonprivityThe lack of privity where the claimant is a buyer in the chain of distribution but did not buy from the defendant, as…
- vertical price-fixingPrice-fixing between parties at different levels of the same chain of distribution, as where a manufacturer and a ret…
- vertical privityIn commercial law, the relationship between parties in a product's chain of distribution, such as a manufacturer and…
- vertical restraintA restraint of trade agreed between firms at different levels of distribution, such as a manufacturer and a retailer.
- vertical trustIn antitrust law, a combination bringing under one ownership businesses engaged in successive stages of production or…
- vertical unionA union of all the workers in one industry, such as shipbuilding, whatever their particular trade.
- very heavy workWork involving the frequent lifting or carrying of heavy objects. Under the Social Security rules it means lifting a…
- vesselA craft used, or capable of being used, to navigate on water. To count as a vessel under the Jones Act, the structure…
- vestTo confer ownership of property on someone, or to give them a fixed right to its present or future enjoyment.
- vestedOf a right, complete and settled, whether for present or for future enjoyment, and not depending on any condition.
- vested estateAn estate carrying either a present right of enjoyment or a fixed right to enjoy it in the future.
- vested giftA gift under which the recipient's right is already fixed, though enjoyment may be postponed.
- vested in interestSettled in such a way that enjoyment will come in future. Reversions, vested remainders, and other future interests t…
- vested in possessionSettled in such a way that enjoyment has already begun.
- vested interestAn interest whose enjoyment, whether now or later, depends on no condition precedent.
- vested legacyA gift by will that the beneficiary holds by a fixed and indefeasible right, whether payable now or later. A legacy p…
- vested ownershipOwnership whose title is perfect and complete: absolute ownership.
- vested pensionA pension in which the employee, or their estate, has a right to the benefits bought with the employer's contribution…
- vested remainderA remainder given to an identified person and subject to no condition that must first be met, as in a grant “to A for…
- vested rightA right so firmly established in a person that it cannot be taken away or cut down without their consent.
- vestigial wordsWords left in a statute by successive amendments which no longer have any work to do. Courts do not let them defeat t…
- vestigiumA trace or mark left by a person or thing.
- vesting orderA court order that itself passes the legal title, in place of a conveyance.
- vestita manusFormerly, the right hand as used in the ceremony of investiture.
- vestitive factA fact that either confers rights or takes them away. It may be investitive, giving rights, or divestitive, taking them.
- vestryThe room in a church where the priest's robes are kept; also the meeting of the minister, churchwardens, and parishio…
- vestry clerkAn officer appointed to attend vestry meetings and keep the minutes.
- vestureThe corn, grass, underwood, and other growth covering land, apart from the trees.
- vestwra terraeThe vesture of land: the growing crop and herbage on it, apart from the trees.
- veteranA person who has served in the armed forces and been honorably discharged.
- Veterans Affairs, Department ofThe federal department that administers benefits and health care for former members of the armed forces and their fam…
- vetitiveHaving the power to veto.
- vetitum namiumFormerly, the unlawful taking back of goods that had been distrained, or the writ that lay against it.
- vetoThe power of one branch of government to block the act of another, above all the executive's refusal to sign a bill t…
- veto messageA document setting out why the executive has refused to approve a proposed law.
- veto powerThe executive's power to stop a measure the legislature has passed from becoming law, subject to being overridden.
- vetus jusThe older law: the law as it stood before some later enactment, above all the law of the Twelve Tables.
- vexata quaestioA question much argued but never settled, or one decided differently by different courts and so left in doubt.
- vexationThe harm suffered through another's trickery or malice.
- vexatiousOf conduct, pursued without reasonable cause and so as to harass or annoy.
- vexatious delayAn insurer's refusal to pay a claim without proper grounds, above all on mere suspicion rather than hard facts.
- vexatious lawsuitA suit brought maliciously and without good cause.
- vexatious proceedingA proceeding brought without reasonable cause, to harass rather than to obtain relief, which a court may forbid the l…
- vexatious refusal to payAn insurer's refusal to pay a claim without proper grounds.
- vexatious suitA suit brought maliciously and without good cause.
- vexed questionA question much argued but never settled, or one decided differently by different courts and so left in doubt.
- vi aut clamBy force or stealth.
- vi laica amovendaFormerly, a writ to remove a lay force holding a church against the person entitled to it.
- viaA way or road; in Roman law, the right of way over another's land, wide enough to drive a beast or a cart.
- via executivaThe summary way of proceeding to execution on a judgment, without the ordinary steps.
- via ordinariaIn civil law, the ordinary course of proceeding, in which a citation is served and the usual forms are observed.
- viableCapable of living, above all of surviving outside the womb; also capable of existing independently.
- viatical settlementThe sale of a life-insurance policy by a terminally ill insured to an investor for less than its face value, the inve…
- viaticationThe buying of a terminally or chronically ill policyholder's life insurance for a lump sum.
- viatorIn Roman law, an officer who served a court as messenger or summoner; in modern usage, a terminally or chronically il…
- viatorial privilegeThe privilege of a witness who lives beyond the court's reach to refuse to attend, so that their evidence must be tak…
- vicarA person who acts in another's place; also the incumbent of a parish whose great tithes belong to someone else.
- vicar generalA church officer who assists a bishop in the discharge of the office.
- vicarageA vicar's benefice; also the vicar's house, and the office itself.
- vicariousBorne by one person in another's stead.
- vicarious disqualificationThe disqualification of every lawyer in a firm or office because one of them is ethically barred from acting for the…
- vicarious infringementLiability for someone else's infringement, imposed on a person who did not infringe directly but had the right and ab…
- vicarious liabilityLiability a person in authority, such as an employer, bears for the wrongful conduct of someone under them, such as a…
- vicarshipThe office or duty of a vicar.
- viceA moral failing or corruption; more broadly, any defect.
- vice crimeA crime of immoral conduct, such as gambling or prostitution.
- vice presidentAn officer chosen in advance to take the place of the president on death, incapacity, resignation, or removal. The Vi…
- vice principalAn employee with such authority over others that the employer answers for their negligence, so that the fellow-servan…
- vice-In the place of. As a prefix it marks a person who acts in another's stead, as in vice-president.
- vice-admiraltyThe office of a vice-admiral; formerly, a civil officer exercising admiralty jurisdiction in a particular place.
- vice-admiralty courtA court set up in the British possessions overseas with jurisdiction over maritime cases, including prize, the colony…
- vice-chamberlainA great officer under the Lord Chamberlain, who in the Chamberlain's absence commanded the officers of that part of t…
- vice-chancellorA judge appointed to act for the chancellor, above all in a court of chancery.
- vice-comesFormerly, the sheriff, so called as the count's deputy; also, in the peerage, the rank of viscount, between earl and…
- vice-commercial agentIn the United States consular service, an officer put in temporarily to fill the place of an absent commercial agent.
- vice-consulA consular officer under a consul, above all one put in temporarily to fill the place of an absent consul.
- vice-dominus episcopiA bishop's vicar general, or commissary.
- vice-marshalAn officer appointed to assist the earl marshal.
- vice-sheriffAn officer who, under the sheriff's direction, may do most of what the sheriff does.
- viceregentA deputy who acts in the place of a ruler or governor, or more broadly any officer exercising delegated authority.
- viceroyThe governor of a kingdom or colony who rules as the monarch's deputy.
- vicinageThe neighborhood; the place where a crime was committed or a trial is held, and from which the jurors are to be drawn…
- vicious propensityAn animal's tendency to endanger people or property.
- vicontielOf or relating to a sheriff, or to a viscount.
- vicontiel rentRent a sheriff paid for the use of a royal farm.
- vicontiel writFormerly, a writ triable in the county court. In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries a civil suit could begin the…
- vicontielsMoney a sheriff owed to the Crown, and the rents from which it came.
- victimA person harmed by a crime, a tort, or other wrong.
- victim allocutionA crime victim's address to the court before sentence is passed, usually urging a heavier punishment.
- victim-impact statementA statement read at sentencing to tell the judge or jury what the crime cost the victim and their family, financially…
- victimless crimeA crime treated as having no direct victim, usually because only consenting adults are involved, such as drug possess…
- victual rentIn Scots law, rent paid in grain or in its money equivalent.
- victualerA person licensed to keep a house of public entertainment, or one who serves food or drink to be consumed on the prem…
- vidameIn French feudal law, an officer who represented a bishop. In time such officers turned their posts into fiefs and be…
- videSee: a citation signal directing the reader to a source, surviving above all in the abbreviation q.v., which see.
- videlicetThat is to say; namely. The word points up or particularizes what has just been said in general terms, above all in s…
- vidimusAn inspection of documents; also an abstract or summary of them, an attested copy, and a charter by which a grantor c…
- vidua regisThe widow of the king, or of a tenant holding directly of him. Such a widow could not remarry without the king's leav…
- viduitatis professioFormerly, a woman's solemn undertaking to live thereafter as a chaste widow.
- viduityWidowhood.
- vieLife. The word appears in Law French phrases such as cestui que vie and pur autre vie.
- viewThe common-law right of prospect: the outlook from the windows of one's house, and the servitude forbidding its obstr…
- view of an inquestA jury's inspection of the place or property an inquest concerns.
- view of frankpledgeThe twice-yearly gathering at which every freeman over twelve in the district was checked to see that he had sworn al…
- viewerA person the court appoints, usually with others, to inspect a place - such as the proposed line of a road - and repo…
- vif-gageA living pledge: an estate granted to a creditor until the debt is paid out of its profits, so called because neither…
- vigilanceWatchfulness: proper promptness in pursuing one's rights and guarding them from infringement.
- vigilantWatchful and on the alert against danger.
- vigilanteA person who takes the law into their own hands to avenge a crime.
- vigilantismThe taking of the law into one's own hands by catching and punishing suspected criminals oneself.
- viis et modisBy all ways and means: in the church courts, a form of substituted service used where personal service cannot be made.
- villFormerly, a division of a hundred; a township or village.
- villageA small settlement of houses and businesses; in some states, a municipal corporation smaller than a city.
- villanis regis subtractis reducendisFormerly, a writ for recovering the king's bondmen carried away from his manors by others.
- villeinA person wholly subject to a lord and attached to a manor, though free as against everyone else. At the time of Domes…
- villein in grossA villein attached to the lord's person rather than to a manor, and transferable by deed from one owner to another.
- villein serviceThe base service a villein owed, such as working the lord's land on set days of the week, which was thought unfit for…
- villein socageSocage in which the services, though fixed, were of a lower kind than those owed under free socage.
- villeinageThe holding of land in servitude to a feudal lord, the tenant owing base services; also a villein's status and the se…
- villenous judgmentA judgment that stripped a man of the benefit of the law, so that he was discredited as juror and witness, forfeited…
- vinagiumA rent paid in wine for a vineyard.
- vinculaciónIn Spanish law, an entail.
- vinculoIn Spanish law, the bond of marriage.
- vindicareTo claim a thing as one's own, or to assert ownership of it.
- vindicateTo clear a person from suspicion or blame; also to assert and defend one's own interest, and, in civil law, to sue fo…
- vindicatioIn Roman law, an action by which an owner claims a thing from whoever holds it.
- vindicatory partThe part of a statute that fixes the penalty for breaking it or for neglecting the duty it imposes.
- vindictaA rod or wand, and hence the ceremony in which a master, holding such a rod, set a slave free.
- vindictive damagesDamages awarded on top of compensation where the defendant acted recklessly, maliciously, or deceitfully, meant to pu…
- vindictive prosecutionThe singling out of a person for prosecution because they exercised a constitutional right.
- viocontiel writFormerly, a writ triable in the county court and addressed to the sheriff.
- violIn French law, rape.
- violationA breach of the law, and the act of breaking it; also, in older usage, ravishment.
- violenceThe unjust use of force, usually with fury or outrage: physical force used unlawfully and meaning harm. In labor disp…
- violentMarked by strong physical force, or threatening it.
- violent crimeA crime that involves using physical force against another person or their property, attempting or threatening to use…
- violent deathDeath brought about by force, whether by accident, suicide, or the act of another, as opposed to death from natural c…
- violent offenseA crime marked by extreme physical force, such as murder, forcible rape, or assault with a dangerous weapon.
- violent profitsIn Scots law, the rents or profits of an estate kept by a tenant who holds over after the landlord has warned them to…
- virgaA rod or staff, above all one carried as the badge of an office.
- virgataA quarter of a hide of land.
- virgata regiaThe king's verge: the area around the royal court within which the king's peace was specially enforced.
- virgeThe area around the royal court within which the king's peace was specially enforced.
- viridario eligendoA writ for the choosing of a verderer of the forest.
- virtual adoptionAn adoption equity treats as made, where a person's promises and conduct bar them and their estate from denying that…
- virtual representationOne party's conducting an action on behalf of others with the same interest, as a class representative does.
- virtual-representation doctrineThe rule that a judgment may bind someone who was not a party, where a party's interests were so closely aligned with…
- virtute officiiBy virtue of office: by the authority a person holds as the incumbent of a particular office.
- visForce or violence against a person or property; in another sense, legal force, so that to have vim is to be legally v…
- vis illicitaUnlawful force: force used without right.
- vis majorA superior and irresistible force; also a loss coming directly from natural causes without human intervention, which…
- vis simplexFormerly, mere force, without more.
- vis-à-visIn relation to, or opposite to. 2. adv. Facing each other, or opposite.
- visaAn official endorsement on a passport showing that it has been examined and that the holder may proceed: the receivin…
- viscountIn the British peerage, the rank between earl and baron.
- viscountessThe wife of a viscount.
- visibleAble to be seen; also clear and conspicuous.
- visible means of supportAn apparent means of earning a living. Vagrancy statutes long used the phrase of people with no visible way of suppor…
- visitIn international law, a naval officer's boarding of an apparently neutral merchant ship of another state so as to exe…
- visitationInspection or supervision; in family law, the time a non-custodial parent spends with a child, which differs from cus…
- visitation booksThe books the heralds compiled on their formal progresses through the kingdom, recording the state of families and th…
- visitation orderAn order fixing the times at which a non-custodial parent may see their children.
- visitation rightIn family law, a court-granted right of a parent or grandparent who does not have custody to spend time with the chil…
- visitatorialConcerned with inspection or supervision on the spot.
- visiting judgeA judge assigned by the presiding judge of a region to sit temporarily on a court, usually while the regular judge is…
- visitorA person who comes to a place; also one appointed to inspect an institution and correct what is amiss.
- visitorialConcerned with inspection or supervision on the spot.
- visneThe neighborhood; at common law, the district from which the jury was drawn.
- VISTAThe federal program, established in 1964, that places volunteers to help improve conditions in the poorest parts of t…
- visusFormerly, the inspection of a place, person, or thing.
- vital statisticsPublic records that a city or state must keep by statute of births, marriages, deaths, and diseases.
- vital termA term so essential to the contract that a breach of it goes to the root of the bargain.
- vitiateTo impair or destroy the effect of something; to make it void or voidable.
- vitilitigateTo litigate out of sheer quarrelsomeness, carrying on a suit in a needlessly contentious way.
- vitious intromissionAn heir's unauthorized meddling with a dead person's goods.
- vitium scriptorisFormerly, a clerical slip in writing.
- vitricusA stepfather.
- viva aquaFormerly, running water: water from a spring or fountain.
- viva pecuniaLive cattle, reckoned as a form of money or as the stock of a farm.
- vivum vadiumA living pledge: an estate granted to a creditor until the debt is paid out of its profits.
- vocationA person's regular calling or occupation.
- vocoI summon, or I vouch.
- Voconian lawThe Roman statute limiting how much a woman might take under a will.
- voice exemplarA sample of a person's voice taken for comparison with a recording, to see whether the same person is speaking.
- voiceprintThe distinctive pattern of lines a machine produces from a person's speech, thought, like a fingerprint, to be peculi…
- voidOf no legal effect at all. Strictly, the word belongs only to what is an absolute nullity, as opposed to something me…
- void ab initioVoid from the very beginning, as a contract is if it gravely offends the law or public policy, in contrast with one m…
- void agreementA contract with no legal effect at all, so that in truth no contract exists.
- void contractA contract with no legal effect, so that in truth no contract exists at all.
- void for indefinitenessOf a deed, so vague in describing the property that it cannot be enforced; of a penal statute, so unclear about what…
- void for vaguenessOf a penal statute, so unclear about what conduct it forbids that it fails to give fair warning and so denies due pro…
- void judgmentA judgment with no legal force at all, whose invalidity anyone affected may raise at any time and in any place, wheth…
- void legacyA gift by will that never took legal effect. What it covered stays part of the estate and passes under the residuary…
- void marriageA marriage invalid from the start, which cannot be made good and which either party may walk away from without a divo…
- void on its faceVoid on the face of it: patently of no effect on merely reading the document.
- void processLegal process that fails in some material way to comply with the required form.
- void-for-vagueness doctrineThe rule, resting on the Due Process Clause, that a criminal statute must say plainly what conduct it forbids, so tha…
- voidableValid until avoided: of a contract, one that a party may either affirm or set aside at their option. It describes a v…
- voidable agreementA contract one party may either affirm or reject: void as against the wrongdoer but binding on the party wronged unle…
- voidable contractA contract one party may either uphold or set aside, being binding on the wrongdoer but not on the party wronged unle…
- voidable judgmentA judgment that looks valid but is materially defective, above all one given by a court with jurisdiction but reached…
- voidable marriageA marriage defective from the start but which stands until a court sets it aside, as where a party was underage or ot…
- voidable preferenceIn bankruptcy law, a transfer an insolvent debtor makes to or for a creditor before filing, which lets that creditor…
- voidable promiseA promise that one party may have set aside because of their own incapacity or mistake, or because of the other party…
- voidable transferIn bankruptcy, a transfer the trustee may set aside because it gave one creditor more than its proper share, or was o…
- voidanceThe annulling or cancelling of something.
- voidnessThe quality of being void: of no legal effect at all.
- voir direThe questioning of prospective jurors, or of a witness, to test their fitness or competence; also the preliminary exa…
- voitureCarriage, or carriage by vehicle.
- volatile stockStock whose price swings widely and quickly.
- volatilityIn securities markets, the tendency of prices to move suddenly and by large amounts.
- volensWilling.
- volenti non fit injuriaThe rule that a person who knowingly and freely accepts a risk cannot recover for an injury it causes. It is an affir…
- volitionThe power to choose, and the act of choosing.
- volitional testA test of insanity under which a person is not criminally responsible if mental disease left them unable to control t…
- Volstead ActThe federal statute of 1919 forbidding the making, sale, or transport of liquor under the Eighteenth Amendment. It fe…
- volume discountA reduction in price given for buying in large quantity.
- volumusWe will: the opening word of a clause in royal writs of protection and letters patent, using the royal plural.
- voluntaryDone by choice, free of outside compulsion; also done without valuable consideration.
- voluntary abandonmentAs a ground for divorce, leaving for good without the other spouse's consent, without sufficient reason, and with no…
- voluntary appearanceAn appearance a party enters of their own accord, without having been served with process.
- voluntary arbitrationArbitration the parties have agreed to, rather than one the law imposes.
- voluntary assignmentAn assignment of a debtor's property for the benefit of all the creditors rather than only some of them.
- voluntary associationA business organization that is not a legal person separate from its members. If it has enough corporate features it…
- voluntary bankruptcyA bankruptcy the debtor initiates.
- voluntary barA bar association lawyers need not join in order to practice.
- voluntary bondA bond that no statute requires but which is given anyway.
- voluntary conveyanceA conveyance made without valuable consideration, such as a deed in favor of a relative.
- voluntary courtesyAn act of kindness done of one's own accord, without any request or promise of reward, from which no promise to pay a…
- voluntary depositA deposit made by the mutual agreement of the person depositing and the person holding.
- voluntary discontinuanceA claimant's own dismissal of a case or of a defendant, without any decision on the merits.
- voluntary dismissalA claimant's dismissal of their own lawsuit, whether at their own request or by agreement of all the parties.
- voluntary dissolutionThe winding up of a company begun by its board of directors and approved by the shareholders.
- voluntary escapeAn escape brought about by the deliberate act of the person in charge of the prisoner, as opposed to one made possibl…
- voluntary euthanasiaEuthanasia carried out with the consent of the terminally ill person.
- voluntary exposure to unnecessary dangerA deliberate act that a reasonable person would see as creating an undue risk of harm, the actor consciously taking t…
- voluntary ignoranceWillful blindness: not knowing something because one has failed to take the obvious steps to find out.
- voluntary intoxicationDeliberately drinking or taking drugs to the point of impairment, knowing that it will impair one's body and mind. Su…
- voluntary jurisdictionJurisdiction exercised over matters nobody contests, such as the granting of probate where no one objects.
- voluntary lienA lien the debtor agrees to.
- voluntary manslaughterA killing that would be murder but is reduced to manslaughter by extenuating circumstances, above all provocation ser…
- voluntary petitionA petition a debtor files with a bankruptcy court seeking protection from creditors.
- voluntary pilotA ship's pilot who takes control with the owner's permission. If such a pilot causes a collision, the owner is person…
- voluntary respiteAn extension of time to pay that all the creditors agree to.
- voluntary saleA sale made freely, with the seller's own consent.
- voluntary searchA search to which the defendant agreed without duress or coercion.
- voluntary settlementA property settlement made without valuable consideration from the beneficiary, resting on love and affection alone.
- voluntary statementA statement made freely, without duress, coercion, or inducement.
- voluntary strandingThe deliberate running of a ship aground, whether to escape a worse fate or for fraudulent purposes.
- voluntary suretyA surety who gets nothing in return for standing behind another's obligation.
- voluntary suretyshipA suretyship in which making one party a surety is the main object of the contract.
- voluntary trustA trust made without consideration, as where an owner declares that they hold property in trust for another or transf…
- voluntary wasteWaste caused by some positive act of destruction, as opposed to mere neglect.
- voluntasWill or intention: the impulse that prompts an act; also the will by which a testator disposes of their estate.
- volunteerA person who acts of their own accord, above all one who helps an employee with the employer's work without the emplo…
- Volunteers in Service to AmericaThe federal program, established in 1964, that places volunteers to help improve conditions in the poorest parts of t…
- voteThe expressing of a preference by ballot, show of hands, or other means; also the total cast in an election, and the…
- vote dilutionThe weakening of a group's voting strength, as by drawing district lines or adopting an at-large system so that its v…
- vote of no confidenceThe vote by which a legislature, by a majority, forces a government or minister to resign.
- voterA person who votes, or who is qualified to vote.
- votingThe casting of votes to decide a question.
- voting agreementAn agreement among shareholders as to how their shares shall be voted.
- voting by classA method of shareholder voting under which each class of shares votes separately on fundamental changes affecting the…
- voting by voting groupA method of shareholder voting under which each group of shares votes separately on fundamental changes affecting the…
- voting groupA class of shareholders grouped by the kind of stock they hold for the purpose of voting, and the shareholders within…
- Voting Rights ActThe federal statute of 1965 guaranteeing the right to vote without discrimination on grounds of race or color, later…
- voting securityA security carrying the right to vote in the company's elections.
- voting stockStock carrying the right to vote in the company's elections.
- voting trustA trust in which shareholders transfer their shares to a trustee so that they may be voted as a block. The shareholde…
- voting-stock rightsA shareholder's right to vote on the company's affairs. Common shareholders usually have one vote per share; preferre…
- voting-trust certificateA certificate a voting trustee issues to the beneficial owners of the shares held in the trust. It may be as freely t…
- votumA vow or promise.
- vouchTo answer for another, or to vouch for the truth of something; formerly, to call a person into court to defend a titl…
- vouch overTo call a person into court to take one's place in defending a claim.
- voucheeA person called into court to defend a title they warranted; also a person cited as authority for a fact.
- voucherA receipt or other document proving that a payment has been made or a debt discharged, and any document that substant…
- voucher to warrantyThe calling into court, by a person whose land is challenged, of the person who warranted the title, so that they may…
- vouching-inAt common law, the giving of notice of a suit to a third party who would be liable over to the defendant, so that the…
- voyageA ship's passage by sea from one place or country to another. Courts generally treat the word as covering the whole e…
- voyage charterA charter under which the shipowner supplies the ship and crew and puts them at the charterer's disposal to carry car…
- voyage insuranceIn marine insurance, cover running between named destinations rather than for a period of time.
- voyage policyA marine policy insuring a vessel or its cargo for a particular voyage.
- voyeurA person who watches without taking part, above all one who takes pleasure in secretly watching others' sexual acts.
- voyeurismThe taking of pleasure in secretly watching the sexual organs or acts of others.
- vulgar purgationClearing oneself by ordeal, whether by fire, hot iron, battle, or cold water, rather than by oath-helpers. It was cal…
- vulgar substitutionIn Roman law, the naming of a substitute to take the place of an heir who refuses or fails to take the inheritance.
- vulgaris purgatioTrial by ordeal: the old mode of trial in which the accused underwent a dangerous physical test, the result being tak…
- vulgo conceptiFormerly, children born outside marriage.
- vulture fundAn investment company that buys up bankrupt or failing businesses, reorganizes them, and hopes to sell them on at a p…