Duhaime.org Legal Dictionary

The law is often esoteric, eccentric and remote. From time to time, there are movements to simplify the law, usually under the byword of "plain language". However, the task is daunting and likely impracticable given the depth and breadth of the law. At the same time, ignorance of the meaning of a legal word can have grave or very expensive consequences.

Duhaime's Law Dictionary is designed to offer one-stop shopping to all of us who occasionally need to know what a certain legal word means, because our rights stand to be affected by a reference to it, or because of employment or academic research requirements.

All definitions are easy to read and all have been painstakingly researched and written in plain language by lawyer Lloyd Duhaime. In most cases, the definition contains samples of the word used in a law or how it may have been described or used in a law book or a case. Where available or known to the author, HTML links are provided allowing the reader to go directly to the cited case.

This dictionary is not intended to be legal advice and you would be foolhardy to rely on it in respect to any specific situation you or an acquaintance may be facing. In addition, the law changes rapidly and sometimes with little notice so from time to time, an article may not be up to date. Therefore, this is merely legal information designed to educate the reader. If you have a real situation, this information will serve as a good springboard to get legal advice from a lawyer.