| |
- Laches
- A legal doctrine whereby those who take too long to assert a legal right,
lose their entitlement to compensation. When you claim that a person's legal
suit against you is not valid because of this, you would call it "estoppel by
laches".
- Landlord
- A land or building owner who has leased the land, the
building or a part of the land or building, to another person.
- Larceny
- An old English criminal and common law offence covering the unlawful or
fraudulent removal of another's property without the owner's consent. The
offence of theft now covers most cases of larceny. But larceny is wider than
theft as it includes the taking of property of another person by whatever
means (by theft, overtly , by fraud, by trickery, etc.) if an intent exists to
convert that property to one's own use against the wishes of the owner.
- Law
- All the rules of conduct that have been approved by the government and
which are in force over a certain territory and which must be obeyed by all
persons on that territory (e.g. the "laws" of Australia). Violation of these
rules could lead to government action such as imprisonment or fine, or private
action such as a legal judgment against the offender obtained by the person
injured by the action prohibited by law. Synonymous to
act or
statute
although in common usage, "law" refers not only to legislation or statutes but
also to the body of unwritten law in those states which recognize
common law.
- Lawyer
- A person that has been trained in the law and that has been certified to
give legal advice or to represent others in litigation.
Also known as a "barrister
& solicitor"
or an attorney.
- Leading question
- A question which suggests an answer; usually answerable by "yes" or "no".
For example: "Did you see David at 3 p.m.?" These are forbidden to ensure that
the witness is not coached by their lawyer through his or her testimony. The
proper form would be: "At what time did you see David?" Leading questions are
only acceptable in
cross-examination
or where a witness is declared hostile.
- Lease
- A special kind of
contract
between a property owner and a person wanting temporary enjoyment and use of
the property, in exchange for rent paid to
the property owner. Where the property is land, a building, or parts of
either, the property owner is called a landlord and
the person that contracts to receive the temporary enjoyment and use is called
a tenant.
- Leasehold
- Real property
held under a lease.
- Legal custody
- A child
custody decision which entails the right to make, or participate in, the
significant decisions affecting a child's health and welfare (compare with
physical
custody and joint custody).
- Legislation
- Written and approved laws. Also known as "statutes"
or "acts." In
constitutional law, one would talk of the "power to legislate" or the
"legislative arm of government" referring to the power of political bodies (e.g.
house of assembly, Congress, Parliament) to write the laws of the land.
- Liability
- Any legal obligation, either due now or at some time in the future. It
could be a debt or a promise to do something. To say a person is "liable" for
a debt or wrongful act is to indicate that they are the person responsible for
paying the debt or compensating the wrongful act.
- Libel
- Defamation
by writing such as in a newspaper or a letter.
- Liberal construction
- A form of
construction which allows a judge to consider other factors when deciding
the meaning of a phrase or document. For example, faced with an ambiguous
article in a
statute, a liberal construction would allow a judge to consider the
purpose and object of a statute before deciding what the article actually
means.
- License
- A special permission to do something on, or with, somebody else's property
which, were it not for the license, could be legally prevented or give rise to
legal action in
tort or
trespass. A common example is allowing a person to walk across your lawn
which, if it were not for the license, would constitute
trespass.
Licenses are revocable at will (unless supported by a contract) and, as such,
differs from an
easement
(the latter conveying a legal interest in the land). Licenses which are not
based on a contract and which are fully revocable are called "simple" or
"bare" licenses. A common example is the shopping mall to which access by the
public is on the basis of an implied license.
- Lien
- A property right which remains attached to an object that has been sold,
but not totally paid for, until complete payment has been made. It may involve
possession of the object until the debt is paid or it may be registered
against the object (especially if the object is real estate). Ultimately, a
lien can be enforced by a court sale of the property to which it attached and
then the debt is paid off from the proceeds of the sale.
- Life estate
- A right to use and to enjoy land and/or structures on land only for the
life of the life tenant. The estate reverts back to
the grantor (or to some other person), at the death of the person to whom it
is given. A property right to last only for the life of the
life tenant is called the estate "pur sa vie." If
it is for the duration of the life of a third party, it is called an estate "pur
autre vie". The rights of the life tenant are
restricted to conduct which does not permanently change the land or structures
upon it.
- Life tenant
- The beneficiary of a life estate.
- Limited partner
- A unique colleague in a
partnership
relationship who has agreed to be liable only to the extent of his (or her)
investment. Limited partners, though, have no right to manage the
partnership.
Limited partners are usually just investors or promoters who seek the tax
benefits of a partnership
- Limitrophe
- Adjacent, bordering or contiguous.
- Lineal descendant
- A person who is a direct
descendant
such as a child to his or her natural parent.
- Liquidation
- The selling of all the assets of a
debtor and
the use of the cash proceeds of the sale to pay off
creditors.
- Lis pendens
- Latin: a dispute or matter which is the subject of ongoing or pending
litigation. Politicians will sometimes refuse to
discuss a matter or an issue which is "lis pendens" because they do not want
their comments to be perceived as an attempt to influence a court of law.
- Literal construction
- A form of
construction which does not allow evidence extrapolated beyond the actual
words of a phrase or document but, rather, takes a phrase or document at face
value, giving effect only to the actual words used. Also known as "strict" or
"strict and literal"
construction. Contrasts with liberal
construction (which allows for the input from other factors such as the
purpose of the document being interpreted).
- Litigation
- A dispute is in "litigation" ( or being "litigated") when it has become
the subject of a formal court action or law suit.
- Livery
- Delivery. An archaic legal word from the
feudal
system referring to the actual legal transmission of possession of an
object to another. For example, a knight would obtain an estate in land as
tenure in
exchange for serving in the king's army for 40 days a year. The king would
give exclusive possession of the land, (i.e. "livery") to the knight. A writ
of livery also developed which allowed persons to sue for possession of land
under the
feudal system. Livery (or "delivery") of the land was important in
completing legal possession or, as it was known in the feudal system,
seisin.
- Living will
- A document that sets out guidelines for dealing with life-sustaining
medical procedures in the eventuality of the signatory's sudden debilitation.
Living wills would, for example, inform medical staff not to provide
extraordinary life-preserving procedures on their bodies if they are incapable
of expressing themselves and suffering from an incurable and terminal
condition.
- LL.B., L.M. or LL.D.
- The Latin abbreviations for the three classes of law degrees: the regular
bachelor degree in law (LL.B.), the masters degree in law (LL.M.) and the
doctorate in law (LL.D.). These are basic prerequisites to admission to the
practice of law in many states.
- Locus
- Latin for "the place." For example, lawyers talk of the "locus delicti" as
the pace where a criminal offense was committed or "loco parentis" to refer to
a person who stands in the place of a parent such as a step-parent in a common
law relationship.
- Long arm statutes
- Each court is bound to a territorial jurisdiction and does not normally
have jurisdiction over persons that reside outside of that jurisdiction. For
example, a court in Scotland would not normally have jurisdiction over a
resident of Ireland. Long-arm statutes are a tool which gives a court
jurisdiction over a person even though the person no longer resides in the
territory limits of the court. For example, UIFSA allows
a court to have jurisdiction over a non-resident support payor.
|