|
- E -
Elements of a Crime: Specific factors that define a
crime which the prosecution must prove beyond a reasonable
doubt in order to obtain a conviction. The elements that must
be proven are (1) that a crime has actually occurred, (2) that
the accused intended the crime to happen, and (3) a timely
relationship between the first two factors.
Eminent Domain: The power of the government to take
private property for public use through condemnation.
Emotional Distress: Mental anguish.
Employee Verification Form: In a workers'
compensation case, it's a bi-annual report of earnings to be
completed by the injured employee. The form is required to be
returned to the insurance carrier within 30 days of receipt or
benefits may be stopped.
En Banc: All the judges of a court sitting together.
Appellate courts can consist of a dozen or more judges, but
often they hear cases in panels of three judges. If a case is
heard or reheard by the full court, it is heard en banc.
Enjoining: An order by the court telling a person to
stop performing a specific act.
Entrapment: A defense to criminal charges alleging
that agents of the government induced a person to commit a
crime he or she otherwise would not have committed.
Equal Protection of the Law: The guarantee in the
Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that all persons
be treated equally by the law. Court decisions have
established that this guarantee requires that courts be open
to all persons on the same conditions, with like rules of
evidence and modes of procedure; that persons be subject to no
restrictions in the acquisition of property, the enjoyment of
personal liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, which do not
generally affect others; that persons are liable to no other
or greater burdens than such as are laid upon others, and that
no different or greater punishment is enforced against them
for a violation of the laws.
Equitable Remedies: Remedies that do not include
monetary settlements. Examples include injunctions and
restraining orders.
Equity: Generally, justice or fairness.
Historically, equity refers to a separate body of law
developed in England in reaction to the inability of the
common-law courts, in their strict adherence to rigid writs
and forms of action, to consider or provide a remedy for every
injury. The king therefore established the court of chancery,
to do justice between parties in cases where the common law
would give inadequate redress. The principle of this system of
law is that equity will find a way to achieve a lawful result
when legal procedure is inadequate. Equity and law courts are
now merged in most jurisdictions.
Error: In the legal sense, a mistaken interpretation
of facts or application of the law that can prove grounds for
an appeal.
Escheat (es-chet): The process by which a deceased
person's property goes to the state if no heir can be found.
Escrow: Money or a written instrument such as a deed
that, by agreement between two parties, is held by a neutral
third party (held in escrow) until all conditions of the
agreement are met.
Estate: An estate consists of personal property
(car, household items, and other tangible items), real
property, and intangible property, such as stock certificates
and bank accounts, owned in the individual name of a person at
the time of the persons death. It does not include life
insurance proceeds unless the estate was made the beneficiary)
or other assets that pass outside the estate (like joint
tenancy asset).
Estate Tax: Generally, a tax on the privilege of
transferring property to others after a person's death. In
addition to federal estate taxes, many states have their own
estate taxes.
Estoppel: A person's own act, or acceptance of
facts, which preclude his or her later making claims to the
contrary.
Et al: And others.
Evidence: Proof of a probative matter presented at
trial for the purpose of inducing belief in the minds of the
jury or judge. Evidence comes in a variety of forms, including
testimony, writings, tangible objects, and exhibits.
Exemplary Damages or Punitive Damages: Compensation
greater than is necessary to pay a plaintiff for a loss. These
damages are awarded because the loss was aggravated by
violence, oppression, malice, fraud or wanton and wicked
conduct on the part of the defendant. Such damages are
intended to punish the defendant for his evil behavior or make
an example of him or her.
Exempt Property: In bankruptcy proceedings, this
refers to certain property protected by law from the reach of
creditors.
Exceptions: Declarations by either side in a civil
or criminal case reserving the right to appeal a judge's
ruling upon a motion. Also, in regulatory cases, objections by
either side to points made by the other side or to rulings by
the agency or one of its hearing officers.
Exclusionary Rule: The rule preventing illegally
obtained evidence to be used in any trial.
Execute: To complete the legal requirements (such as
signing before witnesses) that make a will valid. Also, to
execute a judgment or decree means to put the final judgment
of the court into effect.
Executor: A personal representative, named in a
will, who administers an estate.
Exhibit: A document or other item introduced as
evidence during a trial or hearing.
Exonerate: Removal of a charge, responsibility or
duty.
Expert: A witness who may give an opinion in court
based on the particular competence of that witness.
Ex Parte: On behalf of only one party, without
notice to any other party. For example, a request for a search
warrant is an ex parte proceeding, since the person subject to
the search is not notified of the proceeding and is not
present at the hearing.
Ex Parte Proceeding: The legal procedure in which
only one side is represented. It differs from adversary system
or adversary proceeding.
Ex Post Facto: After the fact. The Constitution
prohibits the enactment of ex post facto laws. These are laws
that permit conviction and punishment for a lawful act
performed before the law was changed and the act made illegal.
Extenuating Circumstances: Circumstances which
render a crime less aggravated, heinous, or reprehensible than
it would otherwise be.
Expungement: Official and formal erasure of a record
or partial contents of a record.
Extradition: The process by which one state or
country surrenders to another state, a person accused or
convicted of a crime in the other state.
|
