petition, n. 1. A formal written request presented to a court or other official body. certiorari petition. A petition seeking discretionary review from an appellate court. See CERTIORARI. debtor’s petition. See voluntary petition. involuntary petition. A petition filed in a bankruptcy court by a creditor seeking to declare a debtor bankrupt. • This type of […]
case plan. A written procedure for the care and management of a child who has been removed from his or her home and placed in foster care or in an institution. • The case plan includes (1) a description of the place where the child has been placed, (2) a plan for providing the child
tyranny. 1. The severe deprivation of a natural right. 2. The accumulation of all powers — the legislative, executive, and judicial — in the same hands (whether few or many). • Sense 2 expresses the Madisonian view of tyranny, to be found in The Federalist, No. 47. 3. Arbitrary or despotic government; the severe and
office. 1. A position of duty, trust, or authority, esp. one conferred by a governmental authority for a public purpose (the office of attorney general). [Cases: Officers and Public Employees 1. C.J.S. Officers and Public Employees §§ 1–9, 12–17, 21.] 2. (often cap.) A division of the U.S. government ranking immediately below a department (the
A tax levied by the federal government and by some states on the transfer or sale of shares of stock. — Often shortened to transfer tax. [Cases: Internal Revenue 4404; Taxation 105.5. C.J.S. Taxation §§ 167, 1681–1692.]
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rusticum forum (r[schwa]s-ti-k[schwa]m for-[schwa]m). Any nonjudicial body (such as an arbitral panel or workers’-compensation review board) that has authority to make a binding decision. — Also termed poor man’s court.
apprentice. 1. Hist. A person bound by an indenture to work for an employer for a specified period to learn a craft, trade, or profession. “Apprentices, in the strict legal sense, are servants, usually but not necessarily infants, who agree to serve their masters with a view to learning some trade or business, and whose
leading of a use. Hist. In a deed, the specification, before the levy of a fine of land, of the person to whose use the fine will inure. • If the deed is executed after the fine, it “declares” the use. “As if A., tenant in tail, with reversion to himself in fee, would settle
breaking a case. 1. The voicing by one appellate judge to another judge on the same panel of a tentative view on how a case should be decided. • These informal expressions assist the judges in ascertaining how close they are to agreement. 2. The solving of a case by the police.
Family law. 1. In child-abuse and neglect proceedings, after an adjudication hearing at which the state proves its allegations, a hearing at which the court hears evidence and enters orders for the child’s care, custody, and control. • Typically, the judge determines a plan for services aimed at reunifying or rehabilitating the family. 2. In
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