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Click on the first letter of the
word from the list above to go to the appropriate section of the glossary.
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Elements of a
Crime: Specific factors that define a crime
which the prosecution must prove beyond a reasonable
doubt in order to obtain a conviction. The elements
that must be proven are (1) that a crime has
actually occurred, (2) that the accused intended the
crime to happen, and (3) a timely relationship
between the first two factors.
Eminent Domain:
The power of the government to take private property
for public use through condemnation.
Emotional
Distress: Mental anguish.
Employee
Verification Form: In a workers' compensation
case, it's a bi-annual report of earnings to be
completed by the injured employee. The form is
required to be returned to the insurance carrier
within 30 days of receipt or benefits may be
stopped.
En Banc: All
the judges of a court sitting together. Appellate
courts can consist of a dozen or more judges, but
often they hear cases in panels of three judges. If
a case is heard or reheard by the full court, it is
heard en banc.
Enjoining: An
order by the court telling a person to stop
performing a specific act.
Entrapment: A
defense to criminal charges alleging that agents of
the government induced a person to commit a crime he
or she otherwise would not have committed.
Equal Protection
of the Law: The guarantee in the Fourteenth
Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that all persons
be treated equally by the law. Court decisions have
established that this guarantee requires that courts
be open to all persons on the same conditions, with
like rules of evidence and modes of procedure; that
persons be subject to no restrictions in the
acquisition of property, the enjoyment of personal
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, which do not
generally affect others; that persons are liable to
no other or greater burdens than such as are laid
upon others, and that no different or greater
punishment is enforced against them for a violation
of the laws.
Equitable
Remedies: Remedies that do not include monetary
settlements. Examples include injunctions and
restraining orders.
Equity:
Generally, justice or fairness. Historically, equity
refers to a separate body of law developed in
England in reaction to the inability of the
common-law courts, in their strict adherence to
rigid writs and forms of action, to consider or
provide a remedy for every injury. The king
therefore established the court of chancery, to do
justice between parties in cases where the common
law would give inadequate redress. The principle of
this system of law is that equity will find a way to
achieve a lawful result when legal procedure is
inadequate. Equity and law courts are now merged in
most jurisdictions.
Error: In the
legal sense, a mistaken interpretation of facts or
application of the law that can prove grounds for an
appeal.
Escheat (es-chet):
The process by which a deceased person's property
goes to the state if no heir can be found.
Escrow: Money
or a written instrument such as a deed that, by
agreement between two parties, is held by a neutral
third party (held in escrow) until all conditions of
the agreement are met.
Estate: An
estate consists of personal property (car, household
items, and other tangible items), real property, and
intangible property, such as stock certificates and
bank accounts, owned in the individual name of a
person at the time of the persons death. It does not
include life insurance proceeds unless the estate
was made the beneficiary) or other assets that pass
outside the estate (like joint tenancy asset).
Estate Tax:
Generally, a tax on the privilege of transferring
property to others after a person's death. In
addition to federal estate taxes, many states have
their own estate taxes.
Estoppel: A
person's own act, or acceptance of facts, which
preclude his or her later making claims to the
contrary.
Et al: And
others.
Evidence:
Proof of a probative matter presented at trial for
the purpose of inducing belief in the minds of the
jury or judge. Evidence comes in a variety of forms,
including testimony, writings, tangible objects, and
exhibits.
Exemplary Damages
or Punitive Damages: Compensation greater than
is necessary to pay a plaintiff for a loss. These
damages are awarded because the loss was aggravated
by violence, oppression, malice, fraud or wanton and
wicked conduct on the part of the defendant. Such
damages are intended to punish the defendant for his
evil behavior or make an example of him or her.
Exempt Property:
In bankruptcy proceedings, this refers to certain
property protected by law from the reach of
creditors.
Exceptions:
Declarations by either side in a civil or criminal
case reserving the right to appeal a judge's ruling
upon a motion. Also, in regulatory cases, objections
by either side to points made by the other side or
to rulings by the agency or one of its hearing
officers.
Exclusionary Rule:
The rule preventing illegally obtained evidence to
be used in any trial.
Execute: To
complete the legal requirements (such as signing
before witnesses) that make a will valid. Also, to
execute a judgment or decree means to put the final
judgment of the court into effect.
Executor: A
personal representative, named in a will, who
administers an estate.
Exhibit: A
document or other item introduced as evidence during
a trial or hearing.
Exonerate:
Removal of a charge, responsibility or duty.
Expert: A
witness who may give an opinion in court based on
the particular competence of that witness.
Ex Parte: On
behalf of only one party, without notice to any
other party. For example, a request for a search
warrant is an ex parte proceeding, since the person
subject to the search is not notified of the
proceeding and is not present at the hearing.
Ex Parte
Proceeding: The legal procedure in which only
one side is represented. It differs from adversary
system or adversary proceeding.
Ex Post Facto:
After the fact. The Constitution prohibits the
enactment of ex post facto laws. These are laws that
permit conviction and punishment for a lawful act
performed before the law was changed and the act
made illegal.
Extenuating
Circumstances: Circumstances which render a
crime less aggravated, heinous, or reprehensible
than it would otherwise be.
Expungement:
Official and formal erasure of a record or partial
contents of a record.
Extradition:
The process by which one state or country surrenders
to another state, a person accused or convicted of a
crime in the other state.
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