| Term | Definition |
|---|
| Legal Liability | The responsibility imposed by law for an act or the failure to act. |
| Tort | A wrongful act or omission, other than a creime or a breach of contract, for which the remedy is usually monetary damages. |
| Negligence | The failure to exercise the degree of care that a reasonably prudent person would have exercised under similar circumstances to avoid harming another person or legal entity. |
| Common Law | A body of principles and rules derived from court decision over time. |
| Statute | A written law passed by a legislative body. |
| Proximate Cause | A cause that, in a natural and continuous sequence unbroken by any new and independent cause, produces an event and without which the event would not have happened. |
| Compensatory Damages | Payment for the losses actually sustained by the plaintiff. |
| Special Damages | Compensatory damages for actual losses that the plaintiff claims are the result of the defendant's wrongful act or omission. |
| General Damages | Compensatory damages that do not have an economic value and that are presumed to follow from the type of wrong claimed by the plaintiff. |
| Punitive Damages | Damages that are imposed if the defendant acted recklessly or maliciously to punish the defendant, to teach the defendant a lesson, or to deter others from engaging in the same kind of conduct. |
| Injunction | A court order that requires the defendant to stop doing something or to do something. |
| Contributory Negligence | The plaintiff's own negligence that in part caused the plaintiff's harm and that prevents the plaintiff from recovering damages. |
| Comparative Negligence | The plaintiff's negligence that in part caused the plaintiff's harm and that proportionally reduces the damages that the plaintiff recovers. |
| Assumption of Risk | The plaintiff's act of knowingly and voluntarily accepting the possibility of harm. |
| Statute of Limitations | A statute that sets forth the periods of time within which various types of legal actions must be brought. |
| Negligence per se | An act that is considred inherently negligent because of a violation of a law or ordinance. |
| Joint and several liability | The liability of multiple defendants either collectively or individually for the entire amount of damages sought by the plaintiff reglardless of their relative degree of responsibility. |
| Res ipsa loquitur | A legal doctrine that provides that, in some circumstances, negligence is inferred simply by an accident occurring. |
| Vicarious Liability | A legal responsibility that occurs when one party is held liable for the actions of a subordinate or associate because of the relationship between the two parties. |
| Intentional Tort | A tort committed with general or specific intent to perform the act that is held to be a tort. |
| Assault | The threat of force against another person that creates a well-founded fear of imminent harmful or offensive contact. |
| Battery | Harmful or offensive contact with another person. |
| False Imprisonment | The restraint or confinement of a person without consent or legal authority. |
| False Arrest | The seizure or forcible restraint of a person without legal authority. |
| Defamation | A false written or oral statement that damages wnother's reputation. |
| Libel | A defamatory statement expressed in a written or fixed form. |
| Slander | A defamatory statement expressed by speech. |
| Malicious Prosecution | The improper institution of legal proceedings against another. |
| Malicious Abuse of Process | The use of civil or criminal procedures for a purose for which they were not designed. |
| Trespass | Unauthorized entry to another person's real property or forcible interference with another person's personal property. |
| Conversion | The unlawful exercise of control over another person's personal property to the detriment of the owner. |
| Nuisance | Anything interfering with another person's use or enjoyment of property. |
| Fraud | A deliberate misrepresentation or concealment of fact in order to make a person act to his or her detriment. |
| Trade Disparagement | A false or misleading statement about another's business, products, or services. |
| Strict Liability, or Absolute Liability | Liability that is not based on negligence or intent to cause harm. |
| Offer | A promise that requires some action by the intended recipient to make an agreement. |
| Acceptance | The assent to an offer that occurs when the party to whom an offer has been made either agrees to the proposal or does what has been proposed. |
| Unilateral Contract | A contract in which only one party makes a promise or undertakes the requested performance. |
| Bilateral Contract | A contract in which each party promises a performance. |
| Consideration | Something of value from the promisee that the promisor requested or bargained for in a contract. |
| Competence | The basic or minimal ability to do something and the mental ability to understand problems and make decisions. |
| Capacity to Contract | A legal qualification that determines one's ability to enter into an enforceable contract. |
| Statute of Frauds | A law to prevent fraud and perjury by requiring that certain contracts be in writing and contain the signature of the party responsibile for perfoming that contract. |
| Breach of Contract | The failure to perform as promised under a contract. |
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