Child Stealing - Every person, not having right of custody, who maliciously takes, entices, detains or conceals any minor child away from parent, guardian or public agency having lawful charge of such child.

Kidnapping defined - Every person who forcibly, or by any other means of instilling fear, steals or takes, or holds, detains, or arrests any person in this country.

Kidnapping elements - Forcibly steals, takes, or arrests any person in this country and takes to another location or country or forcibly persuades by false promises any child under 14 years of age for purposes of child molestation to go to another place in or out of the county or hires, persuades, entices, decoys or seduces by false promises, misrepresentation or similar or any person to go out of the country with intent to sell him into slavery or involuntary servitude, or otherwise employ him to his own use or abducts or brings any person into this country from another country by force or fraud contrary to the law of the place where the act is committed.

Kidnapping for extortion elements - conceals, confines, inveigles, entices, kidnaps, or decoys or carries away any person by any means with intent to hold or detain for ransom, reward or extortion or kidnaps or carries away to commit robbery or aids or abets such act.

Kidnapping statute - enticing or seducing one by false promises, misrepresentations to exploit the person for various reasons.

Forcible taking defined - In kidnapping, the taking is forcible if accomplished through the giving of orders which the victim feels compelled to obey due to reasonable fear of harm or injury.

Risk of harm - increase in the odds that the victim may suffer greater physical injuries due to forced movement over and above those to which a victim of robbery is normally exposed to.

Child abduction - Child Stealing, Violation of Custody, Protective Custody, Concealment of Child Pursuant to Adoption Proceeding, Adoption Brokerage,Child Enticement.

Child stealing - Every person, not having right of custody, who maliciously takes, entices, detains or conceals any minor child away from parent, guardian or public agency having lawful charge of such child.

Violation of custody - violate the custody or visitation provisions of a court custody order by taking or concealing a child with intent to deprive another person of his or her rights to physical custody or visitation.

Child Enticement - adult stranger over 21 who contacts or communicates with a minor 12 or younger.

Elements of robbery - Taking (theft) of personal property of some value in possession of another (asportation), from the person or immediate presence of the victim, against victim's will (without consent), accomplished by means of force or fear (violence or threatened violence), intent to permanently deprive the owner of possession or withhold possession for so long a time as to diminish the value to the owner.

Extortion defined - blackmail, obtaining of property from another, with his consent, or the obtaining of an official act of a public officer, induced by a wrongful use of force or fear, or under color of official right.

ABA - applied behavior analysis.

Abandon - to give up, to disassociate, to renounce ones obligations and rights, failure to complete.

Abandonment - giving up a legal right or to desert or leave.

Abate - to become weaker, to decrease in strength, to make or become less, to put an end to or do away with (abate to nuisance) to make void (abate to action).

Abatement - cancelling a writ or action, stopping a nuisance.

Abdicate- to give up ones responsibilities.

Abduct - to kidnap.

Abduction - taking someone away by force.

Abet - to help or encourage in wrong doing.

Abide - to obey or put up with and endure.

Ab initio - from the start of something. (This phrase is Latin.)

Abjure - to deny or to renounce on oath.

Able - capable or competent. 

Abovementioned - describing something which has been referred to before in the document.

Abrogate - to cancel a legal or formal agreement.

Abscond - when a person fails to turn up to a court hearing when summoned, such as when they have been released on bail and not returned to court.

Absolute - complete and unconditional.

Absolute discharge - someone who has been convicted of an offence who is released without penalty.

Absolute owner - owns sole rights to.

Absolute privilege - a defence which can be used in a case of defamation if the statement from which the defamation arose was made in Parliament or in fair and accurate news reporting of court proceedings or made during court proceedings.

Absolvitor - In a civil action, the judgment pronounced when a court finds for the party defending the action.  

Abuse of process - when criminal proceedings are brought against a person without there being any good reason and with malice.

Acceptance - when an offer is accepted unconditionally and a legally binding agreement is created.

Acceptance of service - when a solicitor accepts a writ on behalf of a client.

Acceptor - the organisation or person who has accepted something on behalf of someone.

Accessory - someone who encourages or helps another person to commit a crime.

Accomplice - someone who helps another person to commit a crime.

Accordingly - a word used in legal documents which means therefore or so.

Account - the record of someones version of events.

Accumulation - gathering together or building up of something. A term used when accumulating evidence.

Accused - a person charged with a criminal offence.

Acknowledgement - admitting that someone has a claim.

Acknowledgement of Service - when a defendant agrees that a writ or originating summons ('claim form' since April 1999) has been received. The defendant fills in, signs and sends back the acknowledgement of service to confirm in writing that the documents were received.

Acquit - when a court decides that a person is not guilty of a crime, or the case has not been proved, it will acquit the person.

Acquittal - the court's decision that a person is innocent of the crime they were charged with.

Action - an application made by a person in civil court of law for proceedings to make a claim.

Act of God - an extreme naturally occurring event that could not have been anticipated.

Actual loss - this means that an item or amount is no longer claimable.

Actus reus - an act which is illegal. (This term is Latin.)

Ad hoc - known as an ad hoc committee. Local Authorities generally use the term Ad hoc on there underlying data (This term is Latin.)

Ad idem - in agreement. (This term is Latin.)

Ad infinitum - endlessly or forever. (This term is Latin.)

Adjourned sine die - when a court case has no fixed hearing date set.

Adjournment - postponing a court hearing.

Adjudge/adjudicate - to give an official judgement about something.

Adjudication order - the former name for a court order which It has now been replaced or altered.

Administrator - someone appointed to manage the affairs of someone who has died without leaving a will.

Admissibility of evidence - which evidence can be presented in court. Evidence must be relevant to the case but even some relevant evidence cannot be presented, such as hearsay or evidence of little value. The judge decides whether or not evidence can be used in the case.

Admission - one side in a case agreeing that something the other side has alleged is true.

Admonition - reprimanding of a defendant by a judge even though the case against the defendant has been discharged (dropped).

Adoption - the system which people use to become parents, even though they are not the child's natural parents.

Adoptive child - a child who has been legally adopted.

Adoptive parent - a person who has legally adopted a child.

Adverse witness - a witness who gives evidence which damages the case of the side which asked the witness to testify for them.

Advocate - is the lawyer who speaks in court for a client; or a Scottish lawyer who is the equivalent of a barrister in England and Wales.

Affidavit - a written sworn statement of truth as evidence by the person signing it. It is sworn before someone authorised by the court.

Affirm - to solemnly promise to tell the truth in court solemnly promise to tell the truth in an affidavit confirm a decision made by a lower court or allow a contract to continue even though it could have been cancelled because it was fundamentally breached.

Affirmation - solemnly promising to tell the truth when giving evidence. It is an alternative to swearing an oath when the person giving evidence does not wish to.

Aforementioned - describing something referred to previously in the document.

Aforesaid - describing something which has been said or referred to before in the document.

Agency - a company or a 3rd party agency.

Agent - someone appointed to act on someone else's behalf.

Age of consent - the age when a person can consent to have sexual intercourse. In the UK it is 18. In Scotland it is 16.

Aiding and abetting - helping someone to commit a crime.Airspacethe space in the atmosphere directly above a piece of land. If you own a piece of land you also own the airspace above the land.

Alias - a false name.

Alibi - a claim that a person was elsewhere when a crime was committed. If someone is accused of a crime their alibi is evidence that the person was somewhere else when the crime was committed or an attempt to prove that the person was somewhere else when the crime was committed.

Alien - someone from a foreign country.

Alienation - when a person or parent is stopped from seeing or being involved in another person or child's life by another person or parent.

All and sundry - everybody.

Allegation - an unproved statement declaring that something has happened.

Alleviate - to lessen or reduce.

Allocation - When an application is made to the Family Court a judge and/or legal adviser will decide which level of judge should hear it. That will depend on how difficult (complex) the case is. 

Alternate director - a person appointed by a director to take the director's place.

Alternative verdict - a person being found guilty of a less serious crime than the one they were charged with. If a more serious charge has not been proved and the defendant has been found not guilty, the defendant may be found guilty of a less serious crime instead. For example, there may not be enough evidence to convict someone of a murder but there may still be enough for a manslaughter conviction. This is known as an alternative verdict.

Amalgamation - two or more companies combining.

Ambiguity - capability of more than one meaning. When a statement's meaning is not clear because it is capable of more than one meaning, it contains an ambiguity.

Ambulatory will - a will which can be revoked or changed while the person who made it is still living.

Amnesty - not punishing a person for an offence they have committed and removing details of the offence from the court's records is giving the person an amnesty.

Ancient lights - the right not to have the light you receive from a neighbour's land blocked.

Annual general meeting - the yearly meeting of the members of an organisation which must be held to meet legal conditions. The annual accounts are presented for approval at this meeting.

Ante - before. (This is a Latin word.)

Antecedents - details about the past of a defendant or a person found guilty of a crime. The information about previous crimes, background and bad behaviour is given to the court before the sentence is given.

Anton Piller order - an order by the High Court. It gives the applicant permission to search the defendant's premises for evidence, inspect it and take it away. It is intended to prevent evidence being destroyed or hidden which would be relevant to the case. (Since April 1999, this has been known as a 'search order'.)

Appeal - asking a court to overturn a lower court's decision. If the decision of a court is disputed it may be possible to ask a higher court to consider the case again by lodging an appeal.

Appellant - the person who is appealing to a court against a decision of a lower court.

Appellate jurisdiction - the authority a court has to hear an appeal against a decision made by a lower court.

Appertaining to applicant - the person asking a court to do something.

Applicant - The person who makes an application to the court is called the Applicant. There may be more than one applicant, in which case they may be called the First Applicant, Second Applicant and so on. 

Appointee - the person who gets the benefit of the use of a power of appointment.

Appointor - the person who uses a power of appointment.

Appurtenances - minor rights in land such as a right to do something on the land.

Arbitration - settling a dispute by using a referee. If a dispute goes to arbitration it is settled by an independent referee. It avoids having to use the courts to settle the dispute.

Arbitrator - the independent referee who settles a dispute without the need to use the courts.

Arraignment - a procedure at the start of a trial when details of the offences are read out and the defendants are asked whether they will plead guilty or not guilty.

Arrest - to seize someone, usually because they are suspected of committing a crime, and take them into custody.

Arrestable offence - a crime for which a person may be arrested without a warrant being needed.

Articles - the clauses in a document. A company's articles set out its rules. The articles form part of the memorandum and articles of association.

Articles of association - documents which set out a company's rules.

Assault - when someone threatens another person with physical harm. Words on their own do not amount to assault but threatening gestures do, even if the person threatened is not touched.

Assign - to formally appoint someone to do something specific.

Assignment - to formally give a specific task to someone to carry out.

Assurance - to make someone feel at easy by reassuring them of something.

Assure - to make a positive statement to put someones mind at ease..

Attachment of earnings - a court order that deductions be made from a person's earnings. The employer pays the money collected to the court and the court pays the money to the people it is owed to.

Attest - to sign to witness a signature on a document.

Attorney - a person appointed to act for another person (such as when someone cannot look after their own affairs). A formal document called a power of attorney is used to appoint the attorney. It is also the name used for a US lawyer.

Attorney General - the chief legal adviser to the Government. He or she must be a Member of Parliament (or have a seat in the House of Lords) and must be a barrister.

Audit - an independent examination of an organisation's records and financial statements (report and accounts) to make sure that the financial statements show a fair reflection of the financial position at the accounting date the income and spending is shown accurately the financial statements meet any legal conditions and the financial statements are drawn up clearly.

Auditor's report - a report and opinion, by an independent person or firm.

Cross-examination - Questioning of a witness by a party other than the party who called the witness.

Evidence in chief - The evidence given by a witness for the party who called him.

Injunction - A court order prohibiting a person from doing something or requiring a person to do something.

Official copy - A copy of an official document, supplied and marked as such by the office which issued the original.

Pre-action protocol - Statements of best practice about pre-action conduct which have been approved by the President of the Family Division and which are annexed to a Practice Direction.

Privilege - The right of a party to refuse to disclose a document or produce a document or to refuse to answer questions on the ground of some special interest recognised by law.

Seal - A seal is a mark which the court puts on document to indicate that the document has been issued by the court.

Service - Steps required by rules of court to bring documents used in court proceedings to a person’s attention.

Set aside - Cancelling a judgment or order or a step taken by a party in the proceedings.

Stay - A stay imposes a halt on proceedings, apart from the taking of any steps allowed by the rules or the terms of the stay.  Proceedings can be continued if a stay is lifted. 

Strike out - Striking out means the court ordering written material to be deleted so that it may no longer be relied upon.

Without prejudice - Negotiations with a view to settlement are usually conducted  "without prejudice" which means that the circumstances in