Glossary

Appeals – An appeal is a process for requesting a formal change to an official decision.

The specific procedures for appealing, including even whether there is a right of appeal from a particular type of decision, can vary greatly from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Even within a jurisdiction, the nature of an appeal can vary greatly depending on the type of case.

Class actions defense – A class action or a representative action is a procedural device used in litigation to determine the rights of and remedies, if any, for large numbers of people whose cases involve common questions of law and/or fact.

Civil rights – Civil rights, or civil liberties, are personal rights of individuals that are guaranteed and protected by the United States Constitution. Many of these rights are set forth in the Constitution’s “Bill of Rights,” which consists of the first ten amendments to the Constitution. These individual rights or liberties act as restraints on the exercise of government powers.

Discrimination – Discrimination involves treating someone less favorably because of their possession of an attribute (e.g., sex, age, race, religion, family status, national origin, military status, disability), compared with someone without that attribute in the same circumstances.

Employment law (or Labor law) – The body of laws, administrative rulings, and precedents which address the legal rights of, and restrictions on, working people and their organizations. As such, this area of the law controls many aspects of the relationship between trade unions, employers and employees.

Personal injury – A personal injury occurs when a person has suffered some form of injury, either physical or psychological, as the result of an accident or intentional conduct by another person.

The most common type of personal injury claims are road traffic accidents, accidents at work, tripping accidents, assault claims, accidents in the home, defective product accidents.

Public records – Public records refer to information that has been filed or recorded by public agencies, such as corporate and property records. Public records are created by the federal and local government (vital records, immigration records, real estate records, driving records, criminal records, etc.) or by the individual, (magazine subscriptions, voter registration, etc.). Most essential public records are maintained by the government and many are accessible to the public either free-of-charge or for an administrative fee. Availability is determined by federal, state, and local regulations.

Risk management – Risk management is a structured approach to controlling uncertainties and potential dangers by assessing what the particular uncertainties or dangers are, then developing strategies to minimize or mitigate those uncertainties or dangers. Risk management strategies may include techniques for avoiding the risk (e.g., employee training), transferring the risk to another party (e.g., by contract), or accepting that some portion of a risk is inevitable when undertaking some enterprises and accounting for that probability (e.g., setting aside a risk fund).

Tort – A tort is a personal wrong or injury, other than a breach of a contract, for which there may be a legal remedy in the form of a lawsuit for money damages. Typically, to prove a tort action, the plaintiff must show that a defendant owed the plaintiff a duty recognized under the law, that the duty was breached by the defendant, and that the breach of duty caused damages to the plaintiff. Torts can be intentional (a state of mind where the defendant desired or intended to breach a duty that caused a harm) or negligent (a state of mind where the defendant did not deliberately intend to breach a duty that caused a harm, but instead acted carelessly or unreasonably under the circumstances).