legal elements test
legal-elements test. Criminal law. A method of determining whether one crime is a lesser included offense in relation to another crime, by examining the components of the greater crime to analyze whether a person who commits the greater crime necessarily commits the lesser one too. — Also termed same-elements test. [Cases: Indictment and Information 189, 191. C.J.S. Indictments and Informations §§ 218, 220, 230–231, 242.]
