What is an answer? | Defendant's response to allegations made by the plaintiff in the latter's complaint. When the answer is filed, the case is said to be ''at issue.'' |
What is civil procedure? | Method and means of enforcing civil law. |
What is a consent decree? | Court-sanctioned agreement settling a legal dispute and entered into by the consent of the parties. |
What is contempt of court? | Failure or refusal to obey a court order. May be punished by a fine or imprisonment. |
What is a counterclaim? | Claim made by a defendant in a civil lawsuit that, in effect, sues the plaintiff. |
What is a default judgment? | Judgment awarded to the plaintiff because the defendant has failed to answer the complaint. |
What is a deposition? | Process of obtaining a witness's sworn testimony out of court. |
What is discovery? | Pretrial procedure in which parties to a lawsuit ask for and receive information - such as testimony, records, or other evidence - from each other. |
What is a dismissal? | Order disposing of a case without a trial. |
Dispositive? | Settling a matter finally and definitively. |
What is an ex parte hearing? | Judicial hearing with only one party present. |
What is fact pleading? | English system of civil procedures that required a high degree of specificity in the facts stated in the complaint. Used in one or two states. |
What is garnishment? | Process whereby money owed to one person as a result of a court judgment may be withheld from the wages of another person (who is known as the ''garnishee''). |
What is an in camera review? | A review that occurs ''in chambers''; in civil litigation, a judge may conduct an in camera review of documents to determine whether the are, in fact, privileged. |
What is an interrogatory? | Form of discovery in which written questions about a lawsuit are submitted to one party by the other party. |
What is a motion? | Application made by one of the litigants requesting the judge to make a decision. |
What is no-fault divorce? | Divorce in which neither party must allege or prove fault (adultery, cruelty, and so on) to dissolve the marriage; the grounds are generally incompatibility or failure of the marriage. |
What is notice pleading? | Type of civil procedure adopted in the 1938 Federal Rules of Civil Procedure that permits pleadings to be less technical than those required under fact pleading. |
What are pleadings? | Process of making formal written statements of each side of a case. |
What is preponderance of the evidence? | In civil law, the standard of proof required to prevail at trial. For a plaintiff to win, he or she must show that the greater weight, or preponderance of the evidence, supports his or her version of the facts. |
What is privileged information? | In evidence, communications that may be kept confidential or private. |
Define quash. | To void or annul. |
What is service (in civil case)? | Process of formally delivering the complaint or a subpoena to the defendant or a witness in a civil suit. |
What is a settlement? | Agreement about the disposition of a law-suit reached by the parties involved. |
What is a subpoena? | Order from a court directing a person to appear before the court and to give testimony about a cause of action pending before it. |
What is a subpoena duces tecum? | Order from a court directing a person to appear before the court with specified documents that the court deems relevant in a matter pending before it. |
What is a summary decision? | Decision in a case that does not give it full consideration. |
What is a summary judgment? | Decision by a judge to rule in favor of one party because the opposing party failed to meet a standard of proof. |
What is a summons? | Court order directing the defendant to appear in court at a specified time and place, either in person or by filing a written answer to the plaintiff |