- affirm: generally it means “to confirm or ratify.”
- appellate jurisdiction: the power of a court to hear appeals from lower courts.
- at-large election: At large (before a noun: at-large) is a description for members of a governing body who are elected or appointed to represent a whole membership or population (notably a city, county, state, province, nation, club or association), rather than a subset.
- beyond a reasonable doubt: the legal burden of proof required to affirm a conviction in a criminal case. In a criminal case, the prosecution bears the burden of proving that the defendant is guilty beyond all reasonable doubt. This means that the prosecution must convince the jury that there is no other reasonable explanation that can come from the evidence presented at trial.
- civil case: A civil case is a private, non-criminal lawsuit, usually involving private property rights, including respecting rights stated under the Constitution or under federal or state law. For example, lawsuits involving breach of contract, probate, divorce, negligence, and copyright violations are just a few of the many hundreds of varieties of civil lawsuits.
- civil defendant: In civil cases, the defendant is the person or entity that is being sued by the plaintiff.
- compensatory damages: In tort law, compensatory damages, also known as actual damages, are damages awarded by a court equivalent to the loss a party suffered. If a party’s right was technically violated but they suffered no harm or losses, a court may instead grant nominal damages.
- concurrent jurisdiction: Concurrent jurisdiction exists where two or more courts from different systems simultaneously have jurisdiction over a specific case. This situation often leads to forum shopping, as parties will try to have their civil or criminal case heard in the court that they perceive will be most favorable to them.
- concurring opinion: a written opinion by one or more judges of a court which agrees with the decision made by the majority of the court, but states different (or additional) reasons as the basis for their decision.
- criminal case: a type of court proceeding in which a prosecutor employed by the federal, state, or local government charges a person with the commission of a crime.
- criminal defendant: a defendant is a person accused (charged) of committing an offense (a crime; an act defined as punishable under criminal law). The other party to a criminal trial is usually a public prosecutor, but in some jurisdictions, private prosecutions are allowed.
- cumulative voting: Cumulative voting refers to any voting structure where individuals can pool their votes together for certain candidates. For example, if a corporate executive has a single vote for each of seven director seats being voted for, cumulative voting would allow the executive to use all seven votes in a single director election. This can allow minority voting classes to achieve some election success by pooling all of their votes into a single election or a couple elections.
- de novo: a Latin term that means "anew," "from the beginning," or "afresh." When a court hears a case “de novo,” it is deciding the issues without reference to any legal conclusion or assumption made by the previous court to hear the case.
- dissenting opinion: an opinion written by an appellate judge or Supreme Court Justice who disagrees with the majority opinion in a given case. A party who writes a dissenting opinion is said to dissent.
- en banc: French for "on the bench." The term refers to a special procedure where all judges of a particular court hear a case. When the court believes that the matters are especially complex or important, the en banc procedure will be used.
- enhanced penalties: An enhancement to a criminal charge is an extra penalty. Extra penalties to a criminal charge, or enhancements, apply when particular circumstances are present in the facts of a criminal case.
- exclusive jurisdiction: exists in civil procedure if one court has the power to adjudicate a case to the exclusion of all other courts. The opposite situation is concurrent jurisdiction (or non-exclusive jurisdiction) in which more than one court may take jurisdiction over the case.
- grand jury: a jury—a group of citizens—empowered by law to conduct legal proceedings, investigate potential criminal conduct, and determine whether criminal charges should be brought. A grand jury may subpoena physical evidence or a person to testify. A grand jury is separate from the courts, which do not preside over its functioning.
- incumbency advantage: For most political offices, the incumbent often has more name recognition due to their previous work in the office. Incumbents also have easier access to campaign finance, as well as government resources (such as the franking privilege) that can be indirectly used to boost the incumbent's re-election campaign.
- indictment: An indictment formally charges a person with a crime.
- judicial federalism: The U.S. Constitution is the supreme law of the land in the United States. It creates a federal system of government in which power is shared between the federal government and the state governments. Due to federalism, both the federal government and each of the state governments have their own court systems.
- jurisdiction: the legal term for the legal authority granted to a legal entity to enact justice. In federations like the United States, areas of jurisdiction apply to local, state, and federal levels.
- magistrate functions: Generally, a magistrate is involved in the preliminary stages of a criminal proceeding. Such proceedings involve adults accused of criminal offenses.
- majority opinion: a judicial opinion agreed to by more than half of the members of a court. A majority opinion sets forth the decision of the court and an explanation of the rationale behind the court's decision.
- name recognition: In politics, name recognition is the ability a voter has to identify a candidate's name due to a certain amount of previous exposure through various campaigning methods. It can be described as the awareness voters have about specific candidates resulting from various forms of campaign advertising.
- original jurisdiction: In the United States, courts having original jurisdiction are referred to as trial courts.
- per curiam opinion: An opinion from an appellate court that does not identify any specific judge who may have written the opinion.
- petit jury: a petit jury (or trial jury) hears the evidence in a trial as presented by both the plaintiff (petitioner) and the defendant (respondent).
- plaintiff: the party who initiates a lawsuit (also known as an action) before a court.
- preponderance of evidence: Preponderance of the evidence is one type of evidentiary standard used in a burden of proof analysis. Under the preponderance standard, the burden of proof is met when the party with the burden convinces the fact finder that there is a greater than 50% chance that the claim is true. This is the burden of proof in a civil trial.
- probate: the judicial process whereby a will is "proved" in a court of law and accepted as a valid public document that is the true last testament of the deceased, or whereby the estate is settled according to the laws of intestacy in the state of residence of the deceased at time of death in the absence of a legal will.
- prosecutor: the legal party responsible for presenting the case in a criminal trial against the defendant, an individual accused of breaking the law. Typically, the prosecutor represents the state or the government in the case brought against the accused person.
- punitive damages: damages assessed in order to punish the defendant for outrageous conduct and/or to reform or deter the defendant and others from engaging in conduct similar to that which formed the basis of the lawsuit.
- remand: To remand something is to send it back. Remand implies a return. The usual contexts in which this word are encountered are reversal of an appellate decision, and the custody of a prisoner.
- reverse: can occur when the decision of a court of appeal is that the judgment of a lower court was incorrect. The result of reversal is that the lower court which tried the case is instructed to vacate the original judgment and retry the case.
- straight-ticket voting: the practice of voting for every candidate that a political party has on a general election ballot.
