Block 1 Study

Answer

The defendant's pleading which responds to the plaintiff's petition or complaint.

Bill of sale

An instrument evidencing a transfer of personal property.

Caption

The heading on a pleading, containing name of court, county, parties, and the title of the document.

Common law

Law evolving from ancient custom, from judicial decision and casual statutes, as contrasted with a concerted plan of statutory enactments.

Counterclaim

The claim that a defendant may make against a plaintiff in the plaintiff's action against him.

Default

Usually in pleading, a failure to take a required step within a specified time; can result in a default judgment against the one who failed to act.

Deposition

Taking testimony outside the courtroom before a court reporter with the other side present for purposes of cross examination. The testimony is given under oath and reduced to writing.

Eminent domain

The power to take private property for public use through condemnation proceedings and compensation.

Hypothetical question

A question asking an expert witness to assume proven facts and eliciting witness' opinion based on those facts.

Liable

Responsible; chargeable with.

Plaintiff

The person or company or corporation or any legal entity named in caption of lawsuit as bringing the action.

Pleading

An instrument used to frame the issues in a lawsuit.

Preponderance

Greater weight, said of evidence.

Interjection

A word that shows mild or strong emotion

Reply

The pleading that responds to an answer.

Stipulation

The agreement of counsel as to existence of certain facts or circumstances.

Noun

a person, place, or thing

Pronoun

a substitute for a noun (he, she, it)

Verb

a word expressing action (did, didn’t)

Adjective

describes a noun (little, blue)

Adverb

modifies a verb, adjective, or another adverb (quickly)

Conjunction

words that join phrases or clauses (and, but, etc. )

Preposition

relates nouns to other words (in, on, above)

Interjection

words that express feeling (dang)

The period

used in our work for polite commands and for complete sentences that are not a question sentence. There are always two spaces after this punctuation before the next sentence.

Court capitalized

When it is referring to the judge

Okay and all right

ALWAYS separate sentences and require a period. One of these words is always two words in our work

The question mark

aka an interrog, the how, what, when, where, and why, and all of these will require this punctuation

One space between question marks

used in a series of questions in the same sentence

Question mark outside of the quotation marks

When the entire sentence is a question.

Question mark inside of the quotation marks

When the quoted material is the question.

FANBOYS

refers to the seven coordinating conjunctions: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, and so.

Comma

Two complete sentences (sentences which have both a subject and a verb) that are five or more words in length that are joined by a conjunction will be joined by this. A third sentence relating to the previous two sentences can also be joined with a semicolon.

Less than 5 words

no comma is necessary before the conjunction.

Independent clause

A group of words with a subject and a verb that forms a complete thought and can stand alone as a sentence.

Dependent clause

A group of words with a subject and a verb that does not express a complete thought and cannot stand alone.

Run-on-sentences

If there are commas within items in a series, semicolons are used to separate those items. Put two complete sentences joined by a conjunction together using a comma before the conjunction. Then start a new sentence even if it starts with a conjunction. Take a third sentence that goes with the previous two sentences and join it with a semicolon. Never join more than three sentences together.

Use a comma

To separate a series of adjectives. For yes-and-no answers that have an echoing statement and do not provide additional information. For direct addresses. To separate throwaway phrases from the rest of the sentence. Never use dashes for these! To set off a proper name or group, no matter where it appears in the sentence. To set off dates and years. For money references. Only use cents if they are included in the reference. To separate a city and a state.

The dash

Used to indicate a shift or change in thought. They are also used for sentences

within sentences that separate a complete thought from the original sentence.

Use dashes (space dash dash space)

To indicate interruptions, false starts, and stutters.

The colon

used to introduce a question or a list. Note that if there are commas within the items of the list, semicolons are used to separate the items in the list. Also note that if the sentence is complete, the first is capitalized. If it is not a complete sentence, the first word is not capitalized. Used for speaker identification and remember there are ALWAYS 2 spaces after this punctuation. Used after QUESTION or ANSWER when testimony is ready back.

The semicolon

Can be used for two sentences not joined by a conjunction that relate to each other. Used in a compound sentence when the

second clause begins with a transitional expression. Used to separate items in a series where the items contain commas or the clauses are long. Used where the question connects to the statement before it. Used to separate the third sentence of a

compound sentence.

Ellipses

Used to indicate missing words, phrases, or sentences in quoted material and are formatted with a space, period, space, period, space, period. Used when a remark or answer to a question trails off without finishing the sentence.

The slant

Used with dates expressed as figures and for interchangeable words.

Parenthesis

Used to indicate notations that we, as the court reporter, need to include in our transcripts. Mostly used for things like breaks, off-the-record discussions, and exhibit markings, but can also be used to show where the witness indicates something physically without an audible answer or that he doesn’t answer at all.

(phonetic).

This is used where we don’t actually have a correct, verified spelling and phonetically spell it the best that we can.

(The oath was administered by the reporter.)

This is used in videotaped depositions where you, the reporter, are administering the oath to the witness. It’s very common that we simply use the parenthetical notation instead of putting verbatim what we said into the transcript.

(as read):

This is used where they are reading from a document, and you don’t know if they are exactly quoting the document where you could use quotation marks.

Defendant

One against whom the action is brought.

Costs

The expenses of a trial or proceeding which may be charged to one or both of the parties. Usually does not include the attorney's fees.

Annotations

The case summaries which follow and construe the statutes printed in the commercially produced statute books. They are not official.

Direct evidence

That offered by eyewitnesses as contrasted to circumstantial evidence from which conclusions are drawn.

Hung jury

One which cannot agree on a verdict.

Hostile witness

Witness who manifests so much hostility or prejudice under examination in chief that the party who has called witness is allowed to cross-examine him/her; i.e., to treat witness as though he/she had been called by the opposite party.

Dismissal with prejudice

Dismissal without trial which bars the assertion of the same cause of action or claim against the same party.

Dismissal without prejudice

Dismissal without trial which permits party to bring another civil action for the same cause unless civil action is otherwise barred.

Injunction

A court order prohibiting some action.

Lis pendens

A pending lawsuit.

Punitive damages

Monetary compensation awarded to plaintiff in a lawsuit in excess of what compensates for property loss, awarded to redress for mental anguish suffered from defendant's misconduct or to punish defendant for wrong and evil actions.

Summary judgment

Decision given by court without delay or formality of full proceedings.

Weight of evidence

A phrase which indicates the relative value of the totality of evidence presented on one side of a judicial dispute, in light of the evidence presented on the other side.

Work product

That work done by an attorney in the process of representing the client which is ordinarily not subject to discovery.

Usury

Charging more than the legal rate of interest.

Affect

A verb except when referring to mood or behavior. As a verb, this is to have an influence or change (sway, modify, alter, touch, stir). To make a difference to or touch the feelings of someone or move emotionally. To infect or be present in someone.

Effect

A noun except when referring to bringing about change. As a verb, this means to accomplish something or cause something to happen. As a noun, expresses a resulting state (result, outcome, consequence, influence, impact).

Contempt of court

Acts which impede the court. It can be failure to carry out an order, or it can be disrespectful conduct.

De jure

Legitimate; lawful.

Canon

A system of correlated rules or standards.

Allocution

Formality of court's inquiry of prisoner as to whether he/ she has any legal cause to show why judgment should not be pronounced against him/her on verdict of conviction. The defendant’s personal statement that they are allowed to make prior to sentencing.

Dictum

In a court's decision, the statement of a rule or principle of law which is not essential to the determination of the issues in a particular case but is used to explain the court's reasoning.

Ex parte

By or for one person, not adversary. In legal ethics, this type of meeting refers to improper contact with a party or a judge, so one side of the case is not supposed to have this kind of meeting with a party or the judge where the other side is not present.

Easement

A right of access onto, over, under, or across real property.

Joint tenancy

An ownership of property by two or more persons; when one joint tenant dies, his/her interest passes to the other tenants.

Interlocutory

Temporary or immediate; not final. Used to describe something while a case is still ongoing.

Guardian ad litem

Appointed to protect a minor defendant's interest during specific litigation.

Et seq.

And following. Ex. when lawyers include a list, pages, or sections after the first number is stated.

Mandamus

Order of a higher court directing a lower court to take certain action.

Res gestae

Things done; especially the acts and declarations admissible in evidence that form the environment of a litigated issue, considered as exception to hearsay rule.

Retainer

The arrangement (or the fee) where a lawyer undertakes to represent a client; usually refers to a continuing arrangement.

Supra

Above, earlier in this document.

Canon Law

Refers to the body of law developed by Christianity, particularly Roman Catholicism, governing the hierarchy and the administration of the church like the act of murder. Aka Christianity Law.

Ad litem

For the purposes of specific the legal action only.

The hyphen

Used when two or more words are combined to form a compound adjective expressing a singular idea, and they will precede the noun that they modify. The exception are percentages or when the first word ends in ly.

Capitalization

Always do this for proper nouns, and do NOT do this for common nouns. Also professional titles of persons when they are addressed by the title without their surnames and do not abbreviate. Do not do this for terms like sir or ma’am unless they start a sentence. Court is always this when it refers to the judge, and plaintiff or defendant are dependent on if they are common or proper. Counsel is this when it’s used in place of a name.

Numbers

Under ten over ten rule, spell out one through ten and use digits for 11 and above except when starting a sentence or when referring to dates, percentages, exhibits, fractions or ratios. All of these after 21 are hyphenated when beginning a sentence.

Tenants in common

A joint tenancy of two or more people, but when one tenant in common dies, his/her interest passes to his/her heirs, etc., not to the other tenants.

Suo nomine

In one’s own name.

Riparian rights

Rights which accrue to the owner of land on the banks of a waterway.

Venue

The place of jurisdiction.

Wanton

Grossly negligent or careless.

Nisi prius

The trial court where a case is tried to a jury as distinguished from an appellate court.

Impeachment

Destruction of a witness’s credibility.

Inculpatory

That which tends to incriminate or bring about a criminal conviction.

Lex loci

The law of the place.

Domicile

The actual place that is home to the person. It’s stronger than residence. You can have several residences simultaneously but only one domicile.

Consideration

In contract law, it’s value given or received; it can be money, services, property, or mutual performances; the factor that makes a contract binding.

Best evidence

Evidence from the most reliable source; an original as against a copy.

Certiorari

Appellate review proceeding examination action of an inferior court for further information; a writ or review or inquiry.

Demurrer

A pleading which says, “I admit, for the purposes of argument, that your claimed facts are true, but those facts do not give you a valid claim against me.”

Bail

The process of taking some security to guarantee that an accused person will appear at a hearing or trial.