Legal Terminology

Faculty: Govind Maan

Legal terminology
This is not a vocabulary class.
Distinct quality of legal terms = they
are precise.
Precision is essential.
For eg. If your TV set has a warranty of
7 years, it is not the same thing as
guarantee for seven years.
Go through these words at least thrice
before exam.

 Abaction
Threatening to a person

Abandon
To give up, to leave

Abate
To reduce or put an end, quashing of writ
or action

Abet
To Aid to commit an offence

 Abeyance
The condition of an inheritance which has no
present owner or a state of suspension

Abjudge
To take away or remove something by judicial
decision

Abrogate
To repeal, cancel or annul an agreement

Absist
To passing away in any legal right

 Abstract
A concise statement of text.

Accession
Coming in possession of a right of an offence

Accroach
To exercise power without authority

Accused
In a criminal trial, the one charged with
commission of offence

 Acquitted
Judicially discharged from an accusation

Adjudge
To deem or pronounce to be

Adjudicate
To rule upon judicially

Affidavit
A written statement under oath

 Affray
Unlawful fighting

Agnates
Relatives whose relation can be traced
though males.

Alimony
A court ordered allowance

Alms
Charitable donations

 Annulment
Judicial act of nullifying or making void

Antimony
A contradiction in law or logic

Arbitration
Settling disputes by referring to 3 rd party

Arson
Crime of unlawfully damaging or
destroying property by fire

 Assay
Examination of Weights & measures

Assize
A session of court

Attach
To take into custody of law

Attempt
Act or instance of effort

 Authority
A judicial decision

Averment
An allegation in pleading, a positive
declaration

Bail
Releasing an arrested person after taking bond
or sureties

Bailable
Eligible for bail

 Ballot
A system of secret voting

Bar
Its a collective term used for lawyers
body

Battery
Crime of Actual

Bear
The one who sells share

 Beneficiary
A person who receives something under a will,
or for whose benefit a property is held in trust

Bequeath
To dispose of personal property by will

Bequest
Act of giving personal property by will

Bicameral
Having two legislative houses

 Bigamy
Marriage with more than one person

Bill
A legislative proposal

Blackmail
A threating demand made without
justification

Bind
To impose one or more legal duties on a
person

 Bond
A legal instrument

Bootlegging
Illegal manufacture of liquor

Borstol
A reformatory, where young offenders
are kept

Bye laws
Laws made by members of community

 Canon
A rule or principle

CIF
The cost of goods i.e. Cost, Insurance,
Freight

Caveat
A Warning

Censure
A Official repimand

 Chattel
Movable property

Cognates
Relationship from mother side

Consideration
Price for a promise

Dactylography
The scientific study of fingerprints as a
method of identification.

 Damnify
To cause loss, to cause hurt or injury.

Deceit
The act of intentionally giving false
information

Deed
A written statement

Deemed
To be treated as

 Decree
A judgment delivered by a court

Denial
The courts refusal to grant a request
presented in a motion or petition

Draft
A rough sketch of a writing

Droit
A legal right

 Ejectment
A legal action by which a person wrongfully
ejected from property seeks to recover
possession an damages

Encroach
To gain or to intrude unlawfully

Entitle
Authority of a legal right

Estate
An interest in land

 Fabricate
To invent, forge or desire falsely

Fact
Something that actually exist

Fair
Impartial, just

Fiat
A command

 Forbearance
The act of refraining from enforcing a
right

Forfeiture
Act forbidden by law

Forgery
An act of fraudulently making a false
document

Franchise
Right to vote

 Free
Having legal and political rights

Frivolous
Lacking a legal basis

Fugitive
A person who flees or escapes

Gale
A periodic payment

 Graft
Act of taking an advantage of a position

Grievance
An injury

Hacking
Unauthorized access

Harassment
Words, conduct or action

Harbor
Act of affording lodging, Shelter

 Heinous
Grave crime

Heir
A person who under the law of inheritance
is entitled to receive something

High jack
To command at gun point

Homicide
Killing of human being by human being

 Ibid
From the same source

Illegal
Foybidden by law

Illicit
Illegal or improper

Immigrant
A person who arrives in a county to settle
there permanently

 Impasse
An insolvable difficulty

Indemnify
To make good for a loss, a person has
suffered

Insolvent
Assent< liabilities

Issue
Matter of fact that raises a question

 Jural
Relating to law or jurisprudence

Juvenile
Young

Kin
Blood relatives

Knowledge
Known awareness

 Lage
Territory in which certain law was in force

Law
A body of rules

Lean
The court regards the advocate position
disfavourably

Leet
A criminal court

 Levy
To raise money compulsorily

Litigation
Process of carrying out a law suit

Livery
Delivery of the possession of real
property

Locus
Place or position

 Lucid
Understandable

Lynch
To hang a person by mob action

Magna carta
One of the greatest common law
document.

Malefaction
A crime or offence

 Malice
Reckless disregard of the law

Mandate
An order from an appellate court directing
a lower court to take a specified action.

May
Is a primary legal sense

Misdemeanor
An indictable offence

 Nepotism
Bestowal of official favor on ones relative

Nupital
Relating to marriage

Oblivion
An official disregard of an offence

Oligarchy
Government by law

Oral
Spoken or uttered

 Oath
An act of swearing

Oust
To deprive of a right of inheritance

Patent
Right of a person who invents
something new

Penal
Relating to punishment

 Peril
Exposure to risk of injury

Polygamy
Having more than one wife

Precedent
The source of law

Prerogative
A special power

Thank you
Govind Maan
govindmaan@hotmail.com