|
Affidavit - A written or printed declaration or statement of facts, made voluntarily, and confirmed by the oath or affirmation of the party making it, taken before a person having authority to administer such oath or affirmation.
Affidavit of Service - An affidavit intended to certify the service of process. Also known as Proof of Service and Return of Service.
Assets - Property of all kinds, real and personal, tangible and intangible.
Attorney of Record - Attorney whose name must appear somewhere in permanent records or files of case, or on the pleadings or some instrument filed in the case, or on appearance docket.
Bond - A certificate or evidence of a debt on which the issuing company or governmental body promises to pay the bondholders a specified amount of interest for a specified length of time, and to repay the loan on the expiration date.
Certified Copy - A copy of a document or record, signed and certified as a true copy by the officer to whose custody the original is entrusted.
Civil Action - All types of actions that are not criminal. An action brought to enforce or protect private rights.
Complaint - Served along with the summons. The complaint is the original or initial pleading by which an action is commenced and contains: 1) a short and plain statement of the grounds upon which the court's jurisdiction depends; 2) a short and plain statement of the claim showing that the plaintiff is entitled to relief; 3) a demand for judgment for the relief to which he/she deems himself/herself entitled.
Court order - Direction of a court or judge made or entered in writing, and not included in a judgment, which determines some point or directs some step in the proceedings.
Defendant - The person defending or denying; the party against whom relief or recovery is sought in an action or suit or the accused in a criminal case.
Distress Writ - A writ that enables a common-law right of landlord, now regulated by statute, to seize a tenant's goods and chattels in a nonjudicial proceeding to satisfy an arrears of rent.
Docket - To abstract and enter in a book. To make a brief entry of any proceeding in a court of justice in the docket. A minute, abstract, or brief entry; or the book containing such entries. A formal record, entered in brief, of the proceedings in a court of justice.
Docket Fee - An attorney's fee, of a fixed sum, chargeable with or as a part of the costs of the action, for the attorney of the successful party.
Enforce - To put into execution; to cause to take effect; to make effective; as, to enforce a particular law, a writ, a judgment or the collection of a debt or fine; to compel obedience to.
Entity - A real being; existence. An organization or being that possesses separate existence for tax purposes. Entity includes person estate, trust and governmental unit.
Execution - The legal process of enforcing judgment, usually by seizing and selling property of a defendant. Form of process whereby an official (usually a sheriff) is directed by way of an appropriate judicial writ to seize and sell so much of the defendant's nonexempt property as is necessary to satisfy a judgment.
Eviction - Dispossession by process of law; the act of depriving a person of the possession of land or rental property which he has held or leased. Act of turning a tenant out of possession, either by re-entry or legal proceedings.
Goods and Chattels - Personal property, as distinguished from real property.
Hearing - A proceeding of relative formality (though generally less formal than a trial), generally public, with definite issues of fact or of law to be tried, in which witnesses are heard and evidence presented. It is a proceeding where evidence is taken to determine issue of fact and to render decision on basis of that evidence.
Incarceration - Imprisonment; confinement in a jail or penitentiary.
Injunction - A court order prohibiting someone from doing some specified act or commanding someone to undo some wrong or injury.
Judgment - The final decision of the court resolving the dispute and determining the rights and obligations of the parties.
Judicial Process - The writ, summons or other process which is used to inform the defendant of the institution of proceedings against him/her and to comple his/her appearance.
Legal Description - A description of real property by government survey, metes and bounds, or lot numbers of a recorded plat including a description of any portion thereof subject to an easement or reservation, if any. Such must be complete enough that a particular parcel of land can be located and identified.
Levy (constructive) - To put a hold or freeze on a defendan't property without actually seizing the property.
Levy (seizure) - To put a hold or freeze on a defendant's property by actually taking the property into the Sheriff's possession.
Levy - The obtaining of money by legal process through seizure and sale of property; the raising of the money for which an execution has been issued.
Notice - Information concerning a fact, actually communicated to a person by an authorized person, or actually derived by him from a proper source, and is regarded in law as "actual" when the person sought to be affected by it knows thereby of the existence of the particular fact in question.
Petition - A written address, embodying an application or prayer from the person or persons preferring it, to the power, body or person to whom it is presented, for the exercise of his or their authority in the redress of some wrong, or the grant of some favor, privilege or license.
Personalty - Personal property. Property that is not real estate.
Plaintiff - The person who sues someone in a civil action. The party who is seekking relief or recovery against someone.
Process - The means used by a court to exercise its jurisdiction over a person or specified property. Usually refers to the method used to inform the defendant of the institution of a proceeding against him/her and to compel his/her appearance or answer.
Pro Se - One who does not retain counsel and represents himself/herself.
Proof of Service - Evidence submitted by an officer that he/she has made service (successfully or unsuccessfully) on a defendant in an action. Also know as Return of Service and Affidavit of Service.
Real Property - Land and generally what is erected on the land.
Return of Service - Evidence submitted by an officer that he/she has made service (successfully or unsuccessfully) on a defendant in an action. Also know as Proof of Service and Affidavit of Service.
Replevin - An action whereby the owner or person entitled to repossession of goods or chattels may recover those goods or chattels from one who has wrongfully taken or who wrongfully detains such goods or chattels.
Restraining Order - An order in the nature of an injunction which may issue upon filing of an application for an injunction forbidding the defendant from doing the threatened act until a hearing on the application can be had.
Satisfaction - An entry made on the record, by which a party in whose favor a judgment was rendered declares that he has been satisfied and paid.
Satisfaction of Judgment - A document such as an execution enforced by the judgment creditor and indicating that the judgment has been paid.
Seizure - The act of taking possession of a property for a violation of law or by virtue of an execution of a judgment. Term implies a taking or removal of something from the possession, actual or constructive, of another person or persons.
Statutory - Governed by law.
Subpoena - A command to appear at a certain time and place to give testimony upon a certain matter.
Summons - Instrument used to commence a civil action. The summons notifies the person named that an action has been commenced against him in the court from where the process issues and that he/she is required to file a written answer with 35 calendar days from the day served with the Clerk of the Superior Court and a copy to the PA/PPS or a judgment by default will be awarded against him/her.
True copy - A true copy does not mean an absolutely exact copy but means that the copy shall be so true that anybody can understand it.
Witness - One who, being present, personally sees or perceives a thing. One who is called to testify before a court. A person whose declaration under oath (or affirmation) is received as evidence for any purpose, whether such declaration be made on oral examination or by deposition or affidavit. A person attesting genuineness of signature to document by adding his signature. One who is called upon to be present at a transaction, or the making of a will. He may thereafter, if necessary, testify to the transaction.
Writ - A written judicial order to perform a specified act, or giving authority to have it done. A written court order or a judicial process, directing that a sheriff or other judicial officer do what is commanded by the writ.
Writ of Attachment - An order to seize a debtor's property so as to secure the claim of a creditor. A writ employed to enforce obedience to an order or judgment of the court. It may take the form of taking or seizing property to bring it under control of the court.
Writ of Execution - A writ to put in force the judgment or decree of a court. Formal written command of a court directing a sheriff or other official to enforce a judgment through process of execution.
|