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Legal Dictionary F - L

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Fiduciary:
A person or institution who manages another’s money or property who is required to exercise a standard care imposed by law. Personal representatives, attorneys, executors, and trustees commonly act as fiduciaries.

File:
To submit documents to the official custody of the court administrator to be entered into the appropriate case file or record.

Filing Fee:
The charge required by courts when submitting various documents.

Finding:
A court’s formal conclusion on issues of fact in a case.

Food and Drun Administration (FDA):
The federal agency that establishes safety and quality standards for food, drugs, cosmetics, and household substances.

General Counsel:
A corporation’s leading attorney.

Grievance:
A complaint filed by an employee regarding working conditions. A grievance may also refer to an alleged injury or injustice giving rise to a complaint.

Gross Negligence:
Fault characterized by extreme carelessness showing willful or reckless disregard for the consequences to the safety or property of another. Gross negligence may give rise to punitive damages above and beyond general damage awards.

Harassment:
Systematic, annoying and continued actions which include threats and demands. Harassment in the workplace may subject the employer to a lawsuit for failure to protect the employee being harassed.

Harmless Error:
A mistake occurring at trial that is considered not sufficiently harmful or prejudicial to merit the reversal of the outcome of a trial.

Hearing:
A formal proceeding to hear specific issues of law or of fact before a court, legislature, or agency.

Hearsay:
Second-hand information that usually constitutes inadmissible evidence; hearsay evidence includes statements by a witness recalling events related to the witness by someone else.

Hostile Witness:
A witness, also called an adverse witness, whose relationship to the opposing party is such that his or her testimony may be prejudicial to the opposing party.

Impaneling:
Selecting a jury from the list of potential jurors.

Impeachment of a Witness:
The presentation of evidence intended to attack a witness’s credibility.

Implied Contract:
A contract, also called an implicit contract, not expressed in writing but inferred by law. A product manufacturer has an implied contract with the product’s consumers that the product will serve its intended purpose.

Instructions:
The judge’s explanation of the applicable law, also referred to as jury instructions or jury charge, as expressed to the jury prior to deliberations.

Intentional Tort:
A wrong perpetrated deliberately.

Joint and Several Liability:
Legal doctrine by which each party responsible for an injury is liable for the total damage award where the other responsible parties cannot pay.

Jones Act:
Also known as the Merchant Marine Act of 1920, the Jones Act is a United States Federal stutute that regulates maritime commerce in U.S. waters and between U.S. ports. It is a cabotage law which also contains provisions regarding seamen's rights governing the workers compensation rights of sailors and the use of foreign vessels in domestic trade in reference to the bill's sponsor Senator Wesley L. Jones of Washington.

Judgment:
A court’s final ruling in a lawsuit.

Jurisdiction:
The court’s authority to hear a case; the geographic area in which a court maintains authority to hear cases.

Jurisprudence:
The study of law.

Jury:
A group of citizens selected according to law and assigned to try a question of fact or indict a person for an offense.

Jury Trial:
A trial heard before a judge and a jury, as opposed to a court trial that is heard before a judge alone.

Justice of the Peace:
A judge who handles minor legal issues such as traffic offenses. A justice of the peace may be an attorney, though some states allow citizens to act as justice of the peace upon passing a test.

Kangaroo:
A court with no legal basis, also slang for a court of law in which violations of legal processes are so bad that justice is denied.

Kidnapping:
The unlawful removal of a human being by force and against his or her will.

Knowingly:
With knowledge, willfully, or intentionally with respect to a material element of an offense.

Law Clerk:
Commonly a lawyer or law school student employed by a court or law firm to do legal research.

Lawsuit:
A dispute between two people or entities that is decided in a court of law. Also called a suit.

Liable:
Legally responsible.

Libel:
Published material regarding a person that harms the person or their reputation. Libel is a tort.

Lien:
An encumbrance or legal burden on property.

Limited Jurisdiction:
Restricted as to the types of criminal and civil cases that may be heard. Family courts are court of limited jurisdiction. They do not maintain the authority to hear a variety of matters unrelated to family law.

Litigant:
A party in a lawsuit.

Litigation:
A legal action, lawsuit, and all related proceedings.

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