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Glossary of Tort Law
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Legal
Glossaries Index
Damages: The financial compensation
awarded to someone who suffered an injury or was harmed by someone else's
wrongful act.
Debtor: Person who owes money.
Decision: The judgment rendered by a
court after a consideration of the facts and legal issues before it.
Deed: A written legal document that
describes a piece of property and outlines its boundaries. The seller of a
property transfers ownership by delivering the deed to the buyer in exchange for
an agreed upon sum of money.
Defamation: The publication of a
statement that injures a person's reputation. Libel and slander are defamation.
Default Judgment: A ruling entered
against a defendant who fails to answer a summons in a lawsuit.
Default: The failure to fulfill a legal
obligation, such as neglecting to pay back a loan on schedule.
Defendant: In civil matters, the
defendant is the person or organization that is being sued.
Defense Table: The table where the
defense lawyer sits with the defendant in the courtroom.
Defined Benefit Plan: A type of
retirement plan that specifies how much in benefits it will pay out to a
retiree.
Deposition: Part of the pre-trial
discovery (fact-finding) process in which a witness testifies under oath. A
deposition is held out of court with no judge present, but the answers often can
be used as evidence in the trial.
Direct Evidence: Evidence that stands on
its own to prove an alleged fact, such as testimony of a witness who says she
saw a defendant pointing a gun at a victim during a robbery.
Direct Examination: The initial
questioning of a witness by the party that called the witness.
Directed Verdict: A judge's order to a
jury to return a specified verdict, usually because one of the parties failed to
prove its case.
Disbursements: Legal expenses that a
lawyer passes on to a client, such as for photocopying, overnight mail and
messenger services.
Discovery: Part of the pre-trial
litigation process during which each party requests relevant information and
documents from the other side in an attempt to "discover" pertinent
facts.
Dismissal with Prejudice: When a case is
dismissed for good reason and the plaintiff is barred from bringing an action on
the same claim.
Docket: A log containing brief entries
of court proceedings.
Double Jeopardy: Being tried twice for
the same offense.
Due Process: The idea that laws and
legal proceedings must be fair. The Constitution guarantees that the government
cannot take away a person's basic rights to "life, liberty or property,
without due process of law." Courts have issued numerous rulings about what
this means in particular cases.
Duty to Warn: The legal obligation to
warn people of a danger. Typically, manufacturers of hazardous products have a
duty to warn customers of a product's potential dangers and to advise users of
any precautions they should take.
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