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.
