Backfilling: A term of employment law; where an employee is assigned to a new job and his/her position filled by another employee. | Legal Definition of Backfilling

Backing Sheet: A back cover page to a legal document designed to show, when folded, what the legal document is and who it is from. | Legal Definition of Backing Sheet

Bad Faith: Intent to deceive. A person who intentionally tries to deceive or mislead another in order to gain some advantage. | Legal Definition of Bad Faith

Badgering: The buying of food products in one place and selling them elsewhere at a profit. | Legal Definition of Badgering

Bail: The pledge of cash or property to secure the release of a thing or person which would otherwise be held in custody. | Legal Definition of Bail

Bailee: The person who receives property through a contract of bailment, from the bailor, and who may be committed to certain duties of care towards the property while it remains in his or her possession. | Legal Definition of Bailee

Bailiff: A person acting with legal authority in the seizure of personal property; and, also, the official in each courtroom who attends to security within. | Legal Definition of Bailiff

Bailment: The transfer of possession of something (by the bailor) to another person (called the bailee) for some temporary purpose (eg. repair or storage) after which the property is either returned to the bailor or otherwise disposed of in accordance with the contract of bailment. | Legal Definition of Bailment

Bailor: The person who temporarily transfers possession of property to another, the bailee, under a contract of bailment. | Legal Definition of Bailor

Bait and Switch: To lure a customer by advertising, at a very attractive price, a reputable product and then to denigrate it in favour of another product offered at a higher price. | Legal Definition of Bait and Switch

Balance of Probabilities: Burden of proof in civil trials. | Legal Definition of Balance of Probabilities

Band: A group of Indians who share culture and territory and are recognized as a separate government entity for the purposes of limited self-government. | Legal Definition of Band

Bandwidth: Available range of frequencies for transmission on a single communications line. | Legal Definition of Bandwidth

Bank: A corporation empowered to deal with cash, domestic and foreign, and to receive the deposits of money and to loan those monies to third-parties. | Legal Definition of Bank

Banker: An individual who is engaged in the business of banking. | Legal Definition of Banker

Bankrupt: A person who has legally declared bankruptcy. | Legal Definition of Bankrupt

Bankruptcy: The formal condition of an insolvent person being declared bankrupt under law. | Legal Definition of Bankruptcy

Bankruptcy Trustee: An officer generally appointed by the court, who takes over the assets of a bankrupt to the benefit of creditors. | Legal Definition of Bankruptcy Trustee

Bare Trust: A trust that is or has become passive for the trustee because all the duties the settlor may have imposed upon the trustee have been performed or any conditions or terms have come to fruition. | Legal Definition of Bare Trust

Bare Trustee: The trustee of a bare trust; a trust that has been reduced to holding the trust property at the absolute disposal and benefit of the beneficiaries. | Legal Definition of Bare Trustee

Barrator: A person who, on more than one occasion, incites litigation or spreads false rumours. | Legal Definition of Barrator

Barratry: An intentional wrongful act committed by the crew or master of a ship to the prejudice of the owner or the charterer. | Legal Definition of Barratry

Barrister: A lawyer that restricts his or her practice to the court room; a litigation specialist. | Legal Definition of Barrister

Bastard: An illegitimate child, born in a relationship between two persons that are not married (ie. not in wedlock) or who are not married at the time of the child’s birth. | Legal Definition of Bastard

Battered Woman Syndrome: A species of self-defence to manslaughter or murder in which expert evidence is led to demonstrate that a female defendant in an abusive relationship comes to believe that to save herself she must kill her husband first. | Legal Definition of Battered Woman Syndrome

Battering Cycle: A three-phase cycle of violent behavior within a spousal relationship. | Legal Definition of Battering Cycle

Battery: Offensive and intentional contact, direct or indirect, which causes injury. | Legal Definition of Battery

Battle of the Forms: Two persons intending to contract but tendering differing form contracts rendering the conclusion as to the terms of the contract, or a determination as to whether there was a contract, difficult. | Legal Definition of Battle of the Forms

Batture: An elevation of the bed of a river under the surface of the water or the elevation of the bank when it has emerged from the water or is as high as the adjoining land. | Legal Definition of Batture

Bawdy House: A brothel; an establishment of ill repute - within which occur acts of prostitution or lewd sex. | Legal Definition of Bawdy House

Bench: A judge in court session. | Legal Definition of Bench

Beneficiary: The person for whom a trust has been created. | Legal Definition of Beneficiary

Benefit of Inventory: A right of legal or testamentary beneficiaries to an estate to demand of the administrator an inventory of the estate. | Legal Definition of Benefit of Inventory

Bequeath or Bequests: Gift of personal property or chattels by will. | Legal Definition of Bequeath or Bequests

Bereavement Leave: Authorized leave from work, paid or unpaid, for the purposes of attending to the funeral of a family member. | Legal Definition of Bereavement Leave

Berne Convention: An international copyright treaty called the Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works signed at Berne, Switzerland in 1886; since amended several times. | Legal Definition of Berne Convention

Betterment: An improvement put upon a property which enhances its value more than mere replacement, maintenance, or repairs. | Legal Definition of Betterment

Bicycle: A muscle-propelled two-wheeled vehicle. | Legal Definition of Bicycle

Bigamy: Being married to more than one person at the same time; a criminal offence in most jurisdictions. | Legal Definition of Bigamy

Bijural: A legal instrument, such as a statute that, is to be applied to different legal systems. | Legal Definition of Bijural

Bill: A proposed statute, not yet approved. | Legal Definition of Bill

Bill of Attainder: Conviction and sentence to death directly by statute, as opposed to resulting from trial. | Legal Definition of Bill of Attainder

Bill of Costs: A formal itemized memorandum presented by the successful party to concluded litigation, to the other, as a proposal of costs and disbursements that the issuing party claims. | Legal Definition of Bill of Costs

Bill of Exchange: A written order from one person (the payor) to another, signed by the person giving it, requiring the person to whom it is addressed to pay on demand or at some fixed future date, a certain sum of money, to either the person identified as payee or to any person presenting the bill of exchange. | Legal Definition of Bill of Exchange

Bill of Lading: A document that a transport company possesses acknowledging that it has received goods, and serves as title for the purpose of transportation. | Legal Definition of Bill of Lading

Binder: A formal statement or written certification of an insurance policy. | Legal Definition of Binder

Bird's Nest Custody: A form of access or custody where the children stay in the former family residence and it is the parents who rotate in and out separately and on a negotiated schedule. | Legal Definition of Bird's Nest Custody

Black Code: Statutes passed by pro-slavery, Southern states of the USA before and after the Civil War, to limit the civil rights of slaves or freed slaves. All black codes were eventually repealed. | Legal Definition of Black Code

Black Letter Law: A principle of law so notorious and entrenched that it is commonly known and rarely disputed. | Legal Definition of Black Letter Law

Blasphemy: The scurrilous, deriding or intemperate expression of dissent or criticism of God or a state's official religion. | Legal Definition of Blasphemy

Blind Trust: A trust in which a settlor reserves the right to terminate the trust but to assert no other power over the trust, which is administered without any other measure of control over the trust's administration. | Legal Definition of Blind Trust

Blockbusting: Attempt to manipulate sale prices of real property by making representations as to crime rate or ethnic ratios. | Legal Definition of Blockbusting

Blue Ribbon Jury: A jury consisting of highly qualified persons. | Legal Definition of Blue Ribbon Jury

Blue Sky Law: An American law term that refers to government controls, through statutes, of the sale of securities to the public. | Legal Definition of Blue Sky Law

Blue-Pencil Severance: Striking out an offending part of a legal document, such as a contract or a statute. | Legal Definition of Blue-Pencil Severance

Board of Directors: The group of most senior managers, operators and administrators of a corporation or association. | Legal Definition of Board of Directors

Boarding House: Residential premises where both shelter and food are provided. | Legal Definition of Boarding House

Bona Fide: Latin: good faith. | Legal Definition of Bona Fide

Bona Vacantia: Property that belongs to no person, and which may be claimed by a finder. | Legal Definition of Bona Vacantia

Bond: A written guarantee in regards to the fulfillment of a legal obligation. | Legal Definition of Bond

Bonus pater familias: Latin: the good family man. | Legal Definition of Bonus pater familias

Bootlegging: The making of an unauthorized copy of a commercially unreleased performance. | Legal Definition of Bootlegging

Booze Can: An establishment wherein liquor is sold without a permit and after legal bar hours. | Legal Definition of Booze Can

Bordereau: A detailed statement forming part of an insurance document. | Legal Definition of Bordereau

Born Alive: A child born and independently breathing or with a heart beat. | Legal Definition of Born Alive

Born Out of Wedlock: Born of parents who were not married at the time of birth. | Legal Definition of Born Out of Wedlock

Bottomry: An obsolete bond contract by which a ship owner or master borrowed money in a far-off port of call, for the repair of a ship in exchange for which, he would repay the loan on safe arrival at the ship's destination, for which the ship stood as collateral but where the lender assumed the risk of the loss of the ship en route. | Legal Definition of Bottomry

Boulevard: A roadway of more than ordinary width and in a more elaborate style than an ordinary street. | Legal Definition of Boulevard

Boundary: An imaginary line which marks the limits of two adjacent pieces of real property. | Legal Definition of Boundary

Boundary Tree: A tree whose trunk, roots or branches encroach on the property or air space of an adjoining owner. | Legal Definition of Boundary Tree

Breach of Contract: A failure of a party to a contract to perform his or her obligations as agreed to within the contract. | Legal Definition of Breach of Contract

Breach Of Trust: Any act or omission on the part of the trustee which is inconsistent with the terms of the trust agreement or the law of trusts. | Legal Definition of Breach Of Trust

Break and Enter: A burglary; to break and enter onto another's premises, land or real property with the intent to there commit a crime, most typically theft | Legal Definition of Break and Enter

Breathalyzer: A device which records alcohol impairment. | Legal Definition of Breathalyzer

Brehon: Judges in ancient and medieval Ireland. | Legal Definition of Brehon

Bribery: A secret payment to a public officer in exchange for preferential treatment. | Legal Definition of Bribery

Bridge: A structure which spans an obstruction and which affords passage to people or things. | Legal Definition of Bridge

Browne v Dunn, The Rule in: Rule of evidence named after the British case in which it was first established; that if you intend on later impeaching a witness with contradictory evidence, that evidence ought to be put to the witness. | Legal Definition of Browne v Dunn, The Rule in

Buggery: Synonymous with sodomy and referring to 'unnatural' sex acts, including copulation, either between two persons of the same sex or between a person and an animal. | Legal Definition of Buggery

Builders' Lien: A statutory charge against real property by those who have contributed material or manpower to its improvement. | Legal Definition of Builders' Lien

Building Code: A North American legal term for the local or municipal regulation which regulates the construction of new, or renovation of existing buildings. | Legal Definition of Building Code

Bullying: Aggressive acts made with harmful intent inflicted by one or more individuals against another. | Legal Definition of Bullying

Bumbershoot Policy: Marine insurance covering liability in excess of one or more different underlying policies. | Legal Definition of Bumbershoot Policy

Burden of Proof: A rule of evidence that makes a person prove a certain thing or the contrary will be assumed by the court. | Legal Definition of Burden of Proof

Burglary: Breaking and entering a residence for the intention of committing a crime or while lawfully within, commit a crime and to thereafter break out. | Legal Definition of Burglary

But For: A test in tort law linking the tort and the damages (aka causation), which are stated as: "but for" the defendant's negligence, the plaintiff would not have been injured. | Legal Definition of But For

By-Law: A municipal, local or corporate rule or regulation. | Legal Definition of By-Law