Basic legal vocabulary

Now that we are talking about legal terms...

A few words of basic legal vocabulary -- click on the word to see the explanation.

• The explanations contain hyperlinks to the other words on the list as well as links to internet sites that will help you understand and remember the words.
• You can hear the words pronounced by clicking on the soundfile icon .
• The explanations are generally grouped by family of words. For instance, you will find accusation under accuse, and burglary under burglar.
• The typography used in the explanations uses a difference in the size of the letters to indicate which syllable of the word is stressed. Illustrative sentences are put in italics.

A:

accuse, acquit, act, action, advocate, affirm, allege, appeal, arrest, attorney, award

B:

ban, barrister, bench, bill, bind, break (a law), break in, bring (an action), burden of proof, burglar

C:

capital punishment, case, cause of action, charge, civil, claim, commit, common law, complaint, condemn, contract, convict, copyright, counsel, court, crime, custody

D:

damages, decision, defendant, dissent, dock (the), duty

E:

enact, enforce, estate, evidence

F:

fault, felony, file, fine

G:

guilty

H:

hearing, hold, homicide, House of Commons, House of Lords, House of Representatives, human rights

I:

illegal, imprison, indict, infraction, infringe, innocent, intellectual property

J:

judge, judgment, judicial review, jurisdiction, jury

L:

landlord, landmark, law, lawful, lawsuit, lawyer, lease, legal, legislate, liability, litigate

M:

magistrate, manslaughter, misdemeanor, murder

N:

negligence

O:

offense, onus of proof, overrule, overturn, own

P:

patent, personal property, plaintiff, plea, precedent, probate, proof, property, prosecute

R:

real estate, remedy, responsibility, reverse, right, rob, rule

S:

sale, sentence, settle, solicitor, standard of proof, statute, steal, sue, suit, swear

T:

tenant, testify, theft, title, tort, trial, tribunal

U:

uphold

V:

violate

W:

will, witness