Legal Term Dictionary

Voluntarily; from free-will or choice.

Voluntarily; from free-will or choice. Less...

The wrongful act of an officer or other person in compelling payment of a fee or reward for his services, under color of his official authority, where no payment is due. Between "extortion" and "exaction" there is this difference: that in the former case the officer extorts more than his More...

The wrongful act of an officer or other person in compelling payment of a fee or reward for his services, under color of his official authority, where no payment is due. Between "extortion" and "exaction" there is this difference: that in the former case the officer extorts more than his due, when something is due to him; in the latter, he exacts what is not his due, when there is nothing due to him. Co. Litt 368. Less...

In the civil law. A gatherer or receiver of money; a collector of taxes. Cod. 10, 19. In old English law. A collector of the public moneys; a tax gatherer. Thus, exactor regis was the name of the king's tax collector, who took up the taxes and other debts due More...

In the civil law. A gatherer or receiver of money; a collector of taxes. Cod. 10, 19. In old English law. A collector of the public moneys; a tax gatherer. Thus, exactor regis was the name of the king's tax collector, who took up the taxes and other debts due the treasury. Less...

In old English law. To raise; to elevate. Frequently spoken of water, i. e. to raise the surface of a pond or pool.

In old English law. To raise; to elevate. Frequently spoken of water, i. e. to raise the surface of a pond or pool. Less...

L. Lat. A trial. Examen computi, the balance of an account. Townsh. Pl 223.

L. Lat. A trial. Examen computi, the balance of an account. Townsh. Pl 223. Less...

An investigation; search; interrogating. In trial practice. The examination of a witness consists of the series of questions put to him by a party to the action, or his counsel, for the purpose of bringing before the court and jury in legal form the knowledge which the witness has of More...

An investigation; search; interrogating. In trial practice. The examination of a witness consists of the series of questions put to him by a party to the action, or his counsel, for the purpose of bringing before the court and jury in legal form the knowledge which the witness has of the facts and matters in dispute, or of probing and sifting his evidence previously given. In criminal practice. An investigation by a magistrate of a person who has been charged with crime and arrested, or of the facts and circumstances which are alleged to have attended the crime and to fasten suspicion upon the party so charged, in order to ascertain whether there is sufficient ground to hold him to bail for his trial by the proper court U. S. v. Stanton, 70 Fed. 890, 17 C. 0. A. 475; State v. Conrad, 95 N. C. 669. -Cross-examination. In practice. The examination of a witness upon a trial or hearing, or upon taking a deposition, by the party opposed to the one who produced him, upon his evidence given in chief, to test its truth, to further develop it, or for other purposes.-Direct examination. In practice. The first interrogation or examination of a witness, on the merits, by the party on whose behalf he is called. This is to be distinguished from an examination in pais, or on the voir dire, which is merely preliminary, and is had when the competency of the witness is challenged; from the cross-examination, which is conducted by the adverse party; and from the redirect examination which follows the cross-examination, and is had by the party who first examined the witness.-Examination de bene esse. A provisional examinaticn of a witness; an examination of a witness whose testimony is important and might otherwise be lost, held out of court and before the trial, with the proviso that the deposition so taken may be used on the trial in case the witness is unable to attend in person at that time or cannot be produced.-Examination of a long account. This phrase does not mean the examination of the account to ascertain the result or effect of it, but the proof by testimony of the correctness of the items composing it. Magown v. Sinclair, 5 Daly (N. Y.) 63.-Examination of bankrupt. This is the interrogation of a bankrupt, in the course of proceedings in bankruptcy, touching the state of his property. This is authorized in the United States by Rev. St. s 5086; and section 5087 authorizes the examination of a bankrupt's wife.-Examination of invention. An inquiry made at the patent-office, upon application for a patent, into the novelty and utility of the alleged invention, and as to its interfering with any other patented invention. Rev. St. U. S. s 4893 (U. S. Comp. St. 1001, p. 3384).-Examination of title. An investigation made by or for a person who intends to purchase real estate, in the offices where the public records are kept, to ascertain the history and present condition of the title to such land, and its status with reference to liens, incumbrances, clouds, etc.-Examination of wife. See PRIVATE EXAMINATION, infra.-Examination pro interesse suo. When a person claims to be entitled to an estate or other property sequestered, whether by mortgage, judgment lease, or otherwise, or has a title paramount to the sequestration, he should apply to the court to direct an inquiry whether the applicant has any, and what interest in the property; and this inquiry is called an "examination pro interesse suo." Krippendorf v. oHyde, 110 U. S. 276, 4 Sup. Ct 27, 28 L. Ed. 145; Hitz v. Jenks, 185 U. S. 155, 22 Sup, Ct. 598, 46 L. Ed. 851.-Preliminary examination. The examination of a person charged with crime, before a magistrate, as above explained. See In re Dolph, 17 Colo. 35, 28 Pac. 470; Van Buren v. State, 65 Neb. 223, 91 N. W. 201.-Private examination. An examination or interrogation, by a magistrate, of a married woman who is grantor in a deed or other conveyance, held out of the presence of her husband, for the purpose of ascertaining whether her will in the matter is free and unconstrained. Muir v. Galloway, 61 Cal. 506 J Hadley v. Geiger, 9 N. J. Law, 233.-Re-examination. An examination of a witness after a cross-examination, unon matters arising out of such cross-examination.-Separate examination. The interrogation of a married woman, who appears before an officer for the purpose of acknowledging a deed or other instrument conducted by such officer in private or out of the hearing of her husband, in order to ascertain if she acts of her own will and without compulsion or constraint of the husband. Also the examination of a witness in private or apart from, and out of the hearing of, the other witnesses in the same cause. Less...

A copy of a record, public book, or register, and which has been compared with the original. 1 Campb. 409.

A copy of a record, public book, or register, and which has been compared with the original. 1 Campb. 409. Less...

In English law. A person appointed by a court to take the examination of witnesses in an action, i. e., to take down the result of their interrogation by the parties or their counsel, either by written interrogatories or viva voce. An examiner is generally appointed where a witness is More...

In English law. A person appointed by a court to take the examination of witnesses in an action, i. e., to take down the result of their interrogation by the parties or their counsel, either by written interrogatories or viva voce. An examiner is generally appointed where a witness is in a foreign country, or is too ill or infirm to attend before the court and is either an officer of the court, or a person specially appointed for the purpose. Sweet. In New Jersey. An examiner is an officer appointed by the court of chancery to take testimony in causes depending in that court. His powers are similar to those of the English examiner In chancery. In the patent-office. An officer in the patent-office charged with the duty of examining the patentability of inventions for which patents are asked. -Examiner in chancery. An officer of the court of chancery, before whom witnesses are examined, and their testimony reduced to writing, for the purpose of being read on the bearing of the cause. Cowell.-Examiners. Persons appointed to question students of law in order to ascertain their qualifications before they are admitted to practice.-Special examiner. In English law. Some person, not one of the examiners of the court of chancery, appointed to take evidence in a particular suit. This may be done when the state of business in the examiner's office is such that it is impossible to obtain an appointment at a conveniently early day, or when the witnesses may be unable to come to London. Hunt. Eq. pt. I. c. 5, | 2. Less...

In old English practice. A roll into which (in the old way of exhibiting sheriffs' accounts) the illeviable fines and desperate debts were transcribed, and which was annually read to the sheriff upon his accounting, to see what might be gotten. CowelL

In old English practice. A roll into which (in the old way of exhibiting sheriffs' accounts) the illeviable fines and desperate debts were transcribed, and which was annually read to the sheriff upon his accounting, to see what might be gotten. CowelL Less...

In Scotch law. To exchange. 6 Bell, App. Cas. 19, 22.

In Scotch law. To exchange. 6 Bell, App. Cas. 19, 22. Less...