legal Terms

author: publisher: isbn10 | asin: print isbn13: ebook isbn13: language: subject publication date: lcc: ddc: subject: cover next page > by Steven H. Gifis Contents Preface vi Acknowledgments viii Pronunciation Guide ix Key to Effective Use of This Dictionary xi Dictionary of Legal Terms 1 < Preface Professions tend to insulate themselves from lay understanding by the development of specialized jargon. The legal profession has achieved this insulation so successfully that the uninitiated is overwhelmed by the incomprehensibility of his or her lawyer's prose. Despite the increasing pervasiveness of law into every facet of modern life, the special language of the law remains a barrier to nonlawyers. In recent years "plain language" statutes have been passed by several states, requiring that consumer contracts, such as residential leases, be written in plain, everyday language. Yet, even with these reforms, the language of the lawyer often remains a mystery to the client. The lawyer's language is replete with words having particular meanings. Thus, a lawyer "moves" to "evict a holdover tenant" when his or her client wants to kick the tenant out. The lawyer seeks to "partition a co-tenancy" gone sour and to "compel an accounting" to the ''aggrieved party." A client's home is destroyed by earthquake and the insurance company refuses to pay. An attorney asks if the "risk" of earthquake is included in the insured's policy and, if not, whether "representations" were made to the homeowner that would support an action to "reform" the policy or that might create an "estoppel" against the company's denial of "liability." A merchant finds an umbrella in a coat rack; the attorney asks whether it has been "abandoned" or "mislaid" and explains to the merchant the "duty" that the law imposes upon a "finder" of "lost property." In 1975 I authored a paperback law dictionary primarily for law students who were trying to comprehend what I and their other law professors were saying. That book has been used by tens of thousands of law students. It is hoped they have found it of assistance in understanding the baffling new world of law. Paralegals, legal secretaries and other professionals who regularly interact with lawyers have also purchased the law dictionary. It occurred to me, however that the greatest need for communication existed between the lawyer and the client.