Hi! My name is Marie-Jeanne, and I am studying Paralegal Technology at Ahuntsic College in Montreal. I started studying in this program for two years now, since I started in August 2022. In this program, you learn a lot about civil law and business law, but my favorite will always be criminal law. We learn about all the different penalties for the different kinds of offenses, about drugs restrictions, and the different types of murders. I am writing this glossary to help law students like me to help them understand a great majority of words in our field, since some of them are hard to understand.
accused
noun
A person or group of people who are charged with or on trial for a crime.
Example: In Antiphon 5, a slave is murdered because he is ACCUSED of killing his master and his murders are told "a jury's vote applies just as much to the man who kills a slave as to the man who kills a free man".
fr: accusé
allegation
noun
A claim or assertion that someone has done something illegal or wrong, typically one made without proof.
Example: Hence, when the Nazis, in 1943, unveiled a mass grave of 15,000 Polish officers at Katyn, murdered upon Stalin's orders, he denied all ALLEGATION and seized the opportunity to break diplomatic relations with the Polish government-in-exile upon inquiries from President Sikorski.
fr: allégation
argument
noun
A reason or set of reasons given with the aim of persuading others that an action or idea is right or wrong.
Example: An ARGUMENT against such flexibility is that the House of Lords itself, in respect of any case that it is based of, lacks authority to remit the case to the court below directing it to re - open and re - hear the case.
fr: argument
bailiff
noun
An officer, similar to a sheriff's deputy, employed to execute writs and processes, make arrests, keep the order in the court.
Example: A more likely recourse for a landlord seeking to re-enter premises is through a court order for possession, which, if necessary, will be enforced by a BAILIFF.
fr: huissier
court of appeals
noun
A court to which appeals are taken in a federal circuit or a state.
Example: An illustration, from a not dissimilar field, of this approach in practice is Re Letters Rogatory Issued by the Director of Inspection of Government of India, where the United States COURT OF APPEALS decided, after an analysis of the powers and duties of a tax assessment agency in India, that it was not a "tribunal" entitled to the execution in New York of a Letter of Request seeking action under 28 USC. 1782.
fr: Cour d'appel
custody
noun
Parental responsibility, especially as allocated to one of two divorcing parents.
Example: Men are also subject to inequalities, such as child CUSTODY, frequently awarded to females.
fr: garde
doctrine
noun
A belief or set of beliefs held and taught by a Church, political party, or other group.
Example: The common law DOCTRINE of consideration, unknown to countries on the European mainland, is the best left to lawyers' discussion.
fr: doctrine
felony
noun
A crime, typically one involving violence, regarded as more serious than a misdemeanor, and usually punishable by imprisonment for more than one year or by death.
Example: Criminal sexual conduct in the second degree is a FELONY punishable by imprisonment for at most 15 years.
fr: crime
judge
noun
A public official with authority to hear cases in a court of law and pronounce judgment upon them.
Example: In character, it was private: the plaintiff summoned the defendant; the parties appeared before a magistrate to determine whether there was a cause of action; once that was established, they chose a JUDGE to hear their case.
fr: juge
jurisprudential
adjective
Relating to the science or philosophy of law or a system of laws.
Example: There are a number of approaches that one can take to answer this question; commercial, sociological, anthropological and JURISPRUDENTIAL approaches all give different answers to the question.
fr: jurisprudentiel
landlord
noun
One that owns and rents land, buildings, or dwelling units.
Example: If a client does not identify a failure on the part of a LANDLORD to make repairs to a rented house as a problem appropriate to a solicitor, or if a solicitor considered such a matter outside his or her field, it would not, under such a definition, be a legal problem.
fr: propriétaire
lawsuit
noun
A claim or dispute brought to a court of law for adjudication.
Example: A person has a legal right, according to our abstract," conceptual" account of legal practice, if he has a right, flowing from past political decisions, to win a LAWSUIT.
fr: procès
notary
noun
A person authorized performing certain legal formalities, especially to draw up or certify contracts, deeds, and other documents for use in other jurisdictions.
Example: Quite apart from the obvious undesirability of verbal agreements for the sale or purchase of land, no transfer of land can be validly achieved in France other than by a bill of sale, which is a notarial document prepared by a NOTARY and signed by all parties or their Attorneys before him…
fr: notaire
prejudice
noun
Harm or injury that results or may result from some action or judgment.
Example: The seriousness of any PREJUDICE which is required to justify a stay of such proceedings.
fr: préjudice
probate
adjective
The official proving of a will.
Example: The deputy judge had before him a PROBATE action in which the first defendant, Mr Clive Smith, sought to obtain PROBATE of a manuscript document bearing the date 18 April 1986, and said to be a testamentary disposition made by the deceased, Mr Percy Winterbone. The deputy judge refused to admit the document to PROBATE.
fr: homologation
prosecute
verb
To hold a trial against a person who is accused of a crime to see if that person is guilty.
Example: Further, in violations like cartels there will be several parties involved therefore, 'even though one party gets off, there will be others to PROSECUTE, and their prosecutions will be more certain.
fr: poursuivre
surety
noun
Money or something valuable which you give to someone to show that you will do what you have promised.
Example: Third party security may be given, however, in a wide variety of cases in some of which the relationship between the SURETY and the debtor will be of a business character rather than matrimonial.
fr: caution
sustain
verb
To keep in existence; maintain.
Example: In the age of photocopiers and word processors, the case against written procedures is more difficult to SUSTAIN.
fr: soutenir
trial
noun
A formal examination of evidence before a judge, and typically before a jury, in order to decide guilt in a case of criminal or civil proceedings.
Example: More recently, the Court of Appeal set aside an order prohibiting reporting by radio or television of a TRIAL of fraud and corruption charges which was nearing its end at Stafford Crown Court.
fr: procès
witness
noun
A person who sees an event, typically a crime or accident, take place.
Example: In Webber it was held that a defendant relies on a fact when counsel puts an argument to a WITNESS, even if that WITNESS rejects the argument being put forward.
