Humboldt County Legal Directory

Legal Terms

Having a hard time understanding legal jargon? Listed below is a general interpretation of commonly used legal terms.
Arbitration - The hearing of a dispute by an impartial third person or persons (chosen by the parties), whose award the parties agree to accept.
Appeal - A proceeding brought to a higher court to review a lower court decision.
Bankruptcy - Refers to statutes and judicial proceedings involving persons or businesses that cannot pay their debts and seek the assistance of the court in getting a fresh start.
Bankruptcy Law - The area of law dealing with the handling of bankrupt persons or businesses.
Business Law - Business Law governs the transactions between businesses. This includes business formation; litigation; contracts; mergers and acquisitions; commercial leasing; and consumer protection.
Civil Litigation - Civil litigation is the process in which civil matters are resolved in a court of law. Civil matters can be described as situations dealing with relationships between people, such as a marriage, or a contract dispute.
Conservatorship -Legal right given to a person to manage the property and financial affairs of a person deemed incapable of doing that for him or herself.
Construction Law - Construction Law deals with all legal issues relating to the construction process from land acquisition and project financing to post-construction claims settlement. These include such matters as, building contracts, bonds and sureties, construction and builders' liens, tendering, and construction claims.
Corporate Law - Corporate Law deals with the formation and operations of corporations and is related to commercial and contract law.
Criminal Law - Criminal Law involves prosecution by the state or federal government of a person or business for an act that has been classified as a crime.
Education Law - Education law is the area of law relating to schools and that deals mainly with schools, school systems and school boards charged with educating our children.
Elder Law - Elder Law is the area of law, statutes, regulations and decisions, which impact on the lives of older Americans and their families.
Employment/Labor Law - Employment law is a broad area that controls how employers must treat employees, former employees, and applicants for employment that includes all areas of the relationship except negotiation and the collective bargaining process, which are covered by labor law.
Environmental Law - Environmental law governs human involvement in the land, waters and air, generally including any impact on the atmosphere, organic and inorganic matter, and living organisms. Environment law also deals with the socio-economic, health and cultural impacts of the environment.
Estate Planning - Estate Planning is protects your wealth and assets by minimizing potential taxes and fees, sets up contingency planning to make sure your wishes regarding health care treatment are followed, manages and administers your estate and appropriately distributes your assets to your intended heirs.
Family Law - Family Law is a multi-faceted area of law that deals with family relations. Family law encompasses such areas as: adoption, child custody and visitation, children's rights, child support, spousal support (alimony), separation agreements, civilian and military divorce (dissolution of marriage), marital property division (equitable division), elder law matters, estate planning, estates and trusts, wills and will contests, probate, insurance, cohabitation agreements, pre-marital (pre-nuptial) agreements, marriage and other legal issues pertinent to the family.
Insurance Law - Insurance Law encompasses the state statutes and Federal laws governing the insurance business and the peripherals of the industry.
Intellectual Property Law - Intellectual Property Law addresses legal issues surrounding the rights of ownership of these ideas, inventions, trade secrets, processes, programs, data, formulas, patents, copyrights, trade secrets, trade dress, service marks or trademarks, the application or registration (referred to as copyright, patent, trade dress, trade secret, trademark or intellectual property law), and the legal or illegal use of this property.
Landlord & Tenant Law - Landlord & Tenant Law concerns renting and leasing property and the rights of both the owner and the renter or lessee.
Land Use -Land Use and Zoning Law involves the regulation of the use and development of real estate.
Legal Malpractice - Legal Malpractice is the failure of a lawyer to render competent professional service to a client. If the client is damaged as a result of the failure, he or she may have a claim against the lawyer for legal malpractice.
Medical Malpractice - Medical malpractice is a broad category that encompasses any injury occurring to a patient because a doctor, nurse, psychologist or other medical professional failed to perform his or her duties according to acceptable medical practices or standards of care.
Personal Injury - Personal Injury involves civil law cases where you are trying to obtain compensation for an injury you sustained to your person.
Probate Law - The legal process of transferring of property upon a person's death.
Product Liability - Defective products. Products liability cases usually involve: dangerous toys, automobile design, sport-utility vehicle rollovers, etc.
Real Estate Law - Real estate law includes a wide variety of legal issues relating to acquiring, financing, developing, managing, constructing, leasing and selling commercial and residential real property of all kinds.
Social Security Law - the ability to try and collect social security benefits that have been denied.
Trusts - Trusts are estate-planning tools that can replace or supplement wills, as well as help manage property during life.
Water Rights - Water law is the field of law dealing with the ownership, control, and use of water as a resource.
Wills - Wills are the most common way for people to state their preferences about how their estates should be handled after their deaths.
Workers Compensation - Federal and state Workers' Compensation (sometimes called workers comp, workman's comp or workmen's compensation) laws were created to ensure that employees who are injured on the job are provided with fixed monetary awards.

Times-Standard does not guarantee the accuracy of above terms listed. The information provided is to assist the General Public and is educational only.

Humboldt CountyLegal Directory

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