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Most Popular Legal Definitions

caning

 A punishment for crimes employed in certain Asian countries in which the convicted defendant receives several lashes with a flexible cane.

as is

description of a condition in a sales contract in which the buyer agrees to take the property without right to complain if it is faulty

monopoly

A commercial advantage enjoyed by only one or a select few companies.

non joinder

the omission of a plaintiff of defendant from a legal proceeding who should have been included 

clear and present danger

The doctrine established in an opinion written by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. in Schenk vs. United States (1919) which is used to determine if a situation creates a threat to the public, individual citizens or to the nation. If so, limits can be placed on First Amendment freedoms of speech, press or assembly.

variance

1) An exception to a zoning ordinance, authorized by the appropriate governmental body. 2) a difference between what the prosecution has charged and what it has proved. 3) a difference between what is alleged and what is proved in a civil complaint.

dissent

To disagree. The word is used in legal circles to refer to the minority opinion of a judge which runs contrary to the conclusions of the majority.

accretion

1) in real estate, the increase of the actual land due to a stream, lake, or sea by the action of the water which deposits soil upon the shoreline 2) when a beneficiary of the deceased gets more of the estate than originally intended due to the death of or rejection by another beneficiary

jure

By right, under legal authority or by the authority of the law.

bar

1)  collectively all attorneys, as "the bar," which comes from the bar or railing which separates the general spectator area of the courtroom from the area reserved for judges, attorneys, parties and court officials 2) to prevent some legal maneuver, as in "barring" a lawsuit due to the running out of the time to file 3) to prohibit and keep someone from entering a room, building or real property