perfect defense
A defense that meets all legal requirements and results in the defendant’s acquittal. See perfect self-defense under SELF-DEFENSE. Cf. imperfect defense.
Search Results for: legal defense
imperfect defense
A defense that fails to meet all legal requirements and usu. results only in a reduction in grade or sentence rather than an acquittal, as when a defendant is charged with manslaughter rather than murder because the defendant, while defending another, used unreasonable force to repel the attack. See imperfect self-defense under SELF-DEFENSE. Cf. perfect
true defense
A defense admitting that a defendant committed the charged offense, but seeking to avoid punishment based on a legal excuse (such as insanity) or justification (such as self-defense).
structural takeover defense
A legal mechanism adopted by a corporation to thwart any future takeover bid without having any financial or operational effect on the target corporation.
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issuable defense
issuable defense 可争议的答辩；涉及实质性问题的答辩普通法诉答中的一个专业用语，指就案件的实体问题〔merits〕提出合法的答辩理由〔legal defense〕的答辩，不同于妨诉答辩〔plea in abatement〕以及任何仅旨在拖延诉讼的答辩。
legal prejudice
A condition that, if shown by a party, will usu. defeat the opposing party’s action; esp., a condition that, if shown by the defendant, will defeat a plaintiff’s motion to dismiss a case without prejudice. • The defendant may show that dismissal will deprive the defendant of a substantive property right or preclude the defendant
real defense
A type of defense that is good against any possible claimant, so that the maker or drawer of a negotiable instrument can raise it even against a holder in due course. • The ten real defenses are (1) fraud in the factum, (2) forgery of a necessary signature, (3) adjudicated insanity that, under state law,
capacity defense
A defense based on the defendant’s inability to be held accountable for an illegal act or the plaintiff’s inability to prosecute a lawsuit (as when the plaintiff was a corporation, but has lost its corporate charter). See CAPACITY.
issuable defense
Common-law pleading. A plea on the merits setting forth a legal defense. Cf. issuable plea under PLEA(3).
audita querela
audita querela (aw-dI-t[schwa] kw[schwa]-ree-l[schwa]). [Law Latin “the complaint having been heard”] A writ available to a judgment debtor who seeks a rehearing of a matter on grounds of newly discovered evidence or newly existing legal defenses. [Cases: Audita Querela 1. C.J.S. Audita Querela § 2.] “The writ of audita querela (= quarrel having been heard)