|
Terms
- Mailbox Rule
- A contract law exception that makes a mailed acceptance of an offer valid as of posting.
Expanded Legal Definition of Mailbox Rule
- Maintenance
- The obligation of one person to contribute, in part or in whole, to the cost of living of another person.
Expanded Legal Definition of Maintenance
- Maladministration
- Abuse of power by public officers.
Expanded Legal Definition of Maladministration
- Mala Fides
- Latin: bad faith.
Expanded Legal Definition of Mala Fides
- Malfeasance
- Doing something which is illegal.
Expanded Legal Definition of Malfeasance
- Malice
- Spite or ill-will.
Expanded Legal Definition of Malice
- Malicious Prosecution
- An intentional tort which redresses losses flowing from an unjustified prosecution.
Expanded Legal Definition of Malicious Prosecution
- Mandamus
- A writ which commands an individual, organization (eg. government), administrative tribunal or court to perform a certain action, usually to correct a prior illegal action or a failure to act in the first place.
Expanded Legal Definition of Mandamus
- Manslaughter
- Unlawful killing of a human being without malice.
Expanded Legal Definition of Manslaughter
- Mansuetae Naturae
- Latin: animals which are now generally domestic, presumed gentle and readily tamed, such as dogs, cats, cows and horses.
Expanded Legal Definition of Mansuetae Naturae
- Mareva Injunction
- A temporary injunction that freezes the assets of a party pending further order or final resolution by the Court.
Expanded Legal Definition of Mareva Injunction
- Maritime Law
- A specialized body of law particular to transportation by water.
Expanded Legal Definition of Maritime Law
- Maritime Lien
- A lien which attaches to a ship and its cargo.
Expanded Legal Definition of Maritime Lien
- MARPOL 73/78
- Acronym for the international treaty for the prevention of pollution from ships, 1973, as modified in 1978.
Expanded Legal Definition of MARPOL 73/78
- Marriage
- The voluntary union for life of one man and one woman to the exclusion of all others.
Expanded Legal Definition of Marriage
- Marshalling
- If a creditor has access to two sources of payment, he shall take his payment out of that fund upon which another creditor has no access or lien.
Expanded Legal Definition of Marshalling
- Martial Law
- The suspension of regular government and habeas corpus or the reliance of military law enforcement.
Expanded Legal Definition of Martial Law
- Mary Carter Agreement
- Where some defendants settle with a plaintiff a term of which is a loan by the settling defendant to the plaintiff, to be repaid by any monies recovered from the remaining defendant(s).
Expanded Legal Definition of Mary Carter Agreement
- Massachusetts Trust
- A unique way to organize a business where the property is bought by, or transferred to, a trustee (such as a trust company) and the trustee issues trust units, which the investors, or their designates, hold as beneficiaries.
Expanded Legal Definition of Massachusetts Trust
- Master
- A partly-empowered superior-level court judge, used mostly for interlocutory and procedural civil hearings.
Expanded Legal Definition of Master
- Material Reciprocity
- A format of international agreements wherein a host state agrees to extend to foreign nationals the same legal rights that the foreign government extends to its own citizens inside its state.
Expanded Legal Definition of Material Reciprocity
- Matrimonial
- Of or relating to the state of being married; of marriage.
Expanded Legal Definition of Matrimonial
- Matrimonial Asset
- An asset owned by one or both of two persons who are married to one another which, upon the application of one of the spouses to a court, is subject to division between them.
Expanded Legal Definition of Matrimonial Asset
- Matrimonial Debt
- A debt contracted during a marriage and for which both spouses are equally liable, regardless of who contracted the debt or who is directly liable for it.
Expanded Legal Definition of Matrimonial Debt
- Matrimonial Property
- Property owned by one or both of two persons who are married to one another which, upon the application of one of the spouses to a court, is subject to division between them.
Expanded Legal Definition of Matrimonial Property
- Matrimony
- The legal state of being married.
Expanded Legal Definition of Matrimony
- Mayhem
- Violently depriving another person of a body part to render less effective that person's defence of self.
Expanded Legal Definition of Mayhem
- Mechanic's Lien
- A statutory charge on real property arising from labor or material supplied to improve upon it.
Expanded Legal Definition of Mechanic's Lien
- Med-Arb
- A form of arbitration in which the arbitrators starts as a mediator but in the event of a failure of mediation, the arbitrator imposes a binding decision.
Expanded Legal Definition of Med-Arb
- Mediation
- A neutral facilitator who assists the parties to a dispute in communicating and negotiating a settlement.
Expanded Legal Definition of Mediation
- Meeting of the Minds
- The fact of contracting parties arresting their thoughts on a common set of fundamental terms.
Expanded Legal Definition of Meeting of the Minds
- Melton's Case
- A mid-1500s English case, never brought to Court because the king and his Parliament defeated the otherwise meritorious claim by retroactive statute.
Expanded Legal Definition of Melton's Case
- Mens Rea
- Latin for guilty mind; guilty knowledge or intention to commit a prohibited act.
Expanded Legal Definition of Mens Rea
- Mental Cruelty
- Wanton, malicious or unnecessary infliction of pain or suffering upon the feelings or emotions of another.
Expanded Legal Definition of Mental Cruelty
- Mercantile Law
- The law as it relates to merchants and commerce; commercial law.
Expanded Legal Definition of Mercantile Law
- Mesne Profits
- Profits from land while it has been improperly held.
Expanded Legal Definition of Mesne Profits
- Minimum Wage
- The lowest allowable rate of pay as established by statute.
Expanded Legal Definition of Minimum Wage
- Minor
- A young person not yet of the age of majority.
Expanded Legal Definition of Minor
- Minutes
- The official written record of a meeting.
Expanded Legal Definition of Minutes
- Miranda Warning
- A requirement that police officers, in the U.S.A., before any questioning is so begun, warn suspects upon arrest that they have the right to remain silent, that any statement that they make could be used against them in a court of law, that they have the right to contact a lawyer and that if they cannot afford a lawyer, that one will be provided.
Expanded Legal Definition of Miranda Warning
- Misdemeanor
- (USA) A crime of lesser seriousness than a felony where the punishment might be a fine or prison for less than one year.
Expanded Legal Definition of Misdemeanor
- Misfeasance
- Improperly doing something which a person has the legal right to do.
Expanded Legal Definition of Misfeasance
- Mis-joinder
- When a person has been named as a party to a law suit when that person should not have been added.
Expanded Legal Definition of Mis-joinder
- Misprision
- Offence in aid of the most seriously punished crimes in the ancient common law of England.
Expanded Legal Definition of Misprision
- Misrepresentation
- A false and material statement which induces a party to enter into a contract.
Expanded Legal Definition of Misrepresentation
- Mistake
- A fundamental error going to the root of a purported contract.
Expanded Legal Definition of Mistake
- Mistrial
- A partial or complete trial which is found to be null and void and of no effect because of some irregularity.
Expanded Legal Definition of Mistrial
- Mitigating Circumstances
- These are facts that, while not negating a wrongful action, tend to show that the defendant may have had some grounds for acting the way he/she did.
Expanded Legal Definition of Mitigating Circumstances
- Mitigation of Damages
- A person who sues another for damages has an obligation to minimize - mitigate - those damages, as far as reasonable.
Expanded Legal Definition of Mitigation of Damages
- M'Naghten Rules
- A defence to criminal law liability developed in England; if, at the time of the offence, the accused had a disease of the mind such that he was unable to know that his act was wrong.
Expanded Legal Definition of M'Naghten Rules
- Modus Operandi
- Latin: method of operation. Used by law enforcement officials to refer to a criminal's preferred method of committing crime.
Expanded Legal Definition of Modus Operandi
- Moiety
- Half of something. For example, it can be said that joint tenants hold a moiety in property.
Expanded Legal Definition of Moiety
- Monarchy
- A form of government in which law-making power is given to a single person, usually holding such authority by birthright and not by merit.
Expanded Legal Definition of Monarchy
- Money
- An item accepted by all as payment for debts or for goods or services.
Expanded Legal Definition of Money
- Money Laundering
- The conversion or transfer of money obtained by crime for the purposes of frustrating law enforcement.
Expanded Legal Definition of Money Laundering
- Monopoly
- A commercial advantage enjoyed by only one or a select few companies in which only those companies can trade in a certain area.
Expanded Legal Definition of Monopoly
- Moot
- A side issue, problem or question which does not have to be decided to resolve the main issues in a dispute.
Expanded Legal Definition of Moot
- Moot Court
- Fictional or hypothetical trial, usually hosted by law schools, as training for future barristers or litigators.
Expanded Legal Definition of Moot Court
- Moratorium
- The temporary suspension of legal action against a person.
Expanded Legal Definition of Moratorium
- Mortgage
- An interest given on a piece of land, in writing, to guarantee the payment of a debt or the execution of some action.
Expanded Legal Definition of Mortgage
- Mortgagee
- The person who extends credit secured by a mortgage; the mortgage lender.
Expanded Legal Definition of Mortgagee
- Mortgagor
- The person who borrows money secured by conceding a mortgage against his interest in real property.
Expanded Legal Definition of Mortgagor
- Mortis Omnia Solvit
- Latin: Death puts an end to everything.
Expanded Legal Definition of Mortis Omnia Solvit
- Mortmain Statutes
- Statutes of ancient English law which prevented the transfer of real property to or from corporations in general, or to or from religious corporations in particular.
Expanded Legal Definition of Mortmain Statutes
- Mosaic Law
- Ancient law as set out in the first five books of the Bible (Old Testament).
Expanded Legal Definition of Mosaic Law
- Motion
- A proposal made to a Court or at a meeting and intended to be considered and decided upon.
Expanded Legal Definition of Motion
- Motor Vehicle
- A self-propelled contrivance designed for the carriage of persons or things.
Expanded Legal Definition of Motor Vehicle
- MOU
- Abbreviation of Memorandum of Understanding. A document intended to become a contract but which, if meeting other criteria, can be recognized, in law, a contract.
Expanded Legal Definition of MOU
- Movable
- Civil law: things not attached to land and which may be carried from place to place.
Expanded Legal Definition of Movable
- Multi-level Marketing
- A system for selling products in which participants get paid for selling products to other participants who, in turn, are paid for selling the same products to yet more participants.
Expanded Legal Definition of Multi-level Marketing
- Murder
- Intentional homicide (the taking of another person’s life), without legal justification or provocation.
Expanded Legal Definition of Murder
- Mutatis Mutandis
- With changes on points of detail.
Expanded Legal Definition of Mutatis Mutandis
|
Find term by first letter:
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z
Dictionary
|