Glossary of Legal Terms
T
- temporary restraining order
- Judge's order forbidding certain actions until a full hearing can be held
to determine whether injunction should be issued. Often referred to as TRO.
Compare preliminary injunction.
- tenancy by the entirety
- See joint tenancy.
- tenancy in common
- Form of legal co-ownership of property in which survivors, when one of the
owners dies, do not have rights to decedent's shares of the property. Compare
joint tenancy.
- testamentary capacity
- Mental ability an individual must have to make a will.
- testamentary trust
- Trust set up by a will. Compare living
trust.
- testator
- Person who makes a will.
- testimony
- Evidence given by witness under oath at trial or via affidavit or
deposition.
- theft
- See larceny.
- third party
- Person, business or government agency, etc., not actively involved in a
legal proceeding, agreement or transaction, but who is somehow involved.
- third-party claim
- Action by a defendant that brings a third party into a lawsuit.
Compare intervention.
- title
- Legal ownership of property.
- tort
- Injury or wrong committed on a person or property of another for which
remedy can be sought in civil court, except that
which involves a contract.
- tortfeasor
- One who commits a tort; a wrong doer.
- transcript
- Official record of all testimony and events that occur during a trial or
hearing.
- transfer hearing
- Hearing in juvenile court to determine whether jurisdiction over a juvenile
case should remain in juvenile court or be transferred to adult court.
- trial de novo
- A new trial.
- TRO
- Temporary Restraining Order
- true bill
- Indictment by grand jury. Notation on
indictment that charge should go to court. Compare no
bill.
- trust
- Legal device used to manage real or personal property, established by one
person (grantor or settlor) for the benefit of
another (beneficiary). A third person (trustee) or the grantor manages the trust.
- trust agreement or declaration
- Legal document that sets up a trust.
- trustee
- Person or institution that manages a trust.
- turncoat witness
- Witness whose testimony was expected to be favorable, but who later becomes
an adverse witness.
Last updated 8-14-00 1100 by gle