Wager of Law: An ancient English law defence to a claim of contractual debt. | Legal Definition of Wager of Law

Wages: Compensation for work or services. | Legal Definition of Wages

Wagner Act: The informal name of the National Labor Relations Act of the United States of America (NLRA). | Legal Definition of Wagner Act

Waiver: An intentional relinquishment or abandonment of a known right or privilege. | Legal Definition of Waiver

Waiver By Conduct: The abandonment of a right implied from a person's conduct. | Legal Definition of Waiver By Conduct

Wallace Damages: Increased damage award in a wrongful dismissal case because of the manner in which the dismissal was handled by the employer. | Legal Definition of Wallace Damages

Want of Prosecution: An application to a judge to dismiss a law suit alleging that the litigant has inexcusably delayed moving the litigation along and that under the circumstances, the litigation ought to be dismissed. | Legal Definition of Want of Prosecution

Waqf: Muslim law: property dedicated to charitable purposes. | Legal Definition of Waqf

War: The use of violence and force between two or more states to resolve a matter of dispute. | Legal Definition of War

War Crimes: Excessive brutality during war, in contravention of an international treaty or convention. | Legal Definition of War Crimes

War Treason: Acts committed within the lines of a belligerent as are harmful to him and are intended to favour the enemy. | Legal Definition of War Treason

Warrant: A document giving a person legal authority to do a certain thing. | Legal Definition of Warrant

Warranty: A guarantee given on the performance of a product or the doing of a certain thing. | Legal Definition of Warranty

Washerwoman Syndrome: Changes in the skin condition that result from being immersed in water. | Legal Definition of Washerwoman Syndrome

Waste: The abuse, destruction or permanent change to property by one who is merely in possession of it as in the case of a tenant or a life tenant. | Legal Definition of Waste

Waterboarding: A criminal investigation interrogation technique whereby a person suspected of having or withholding relevant information is blindfolded and bound on their back, sometimes with the face covered with porous or nonporous material, and subjected to water poured over their mouth and nose such as to simulate drowning and to thus, under duress, elicit information. | Legal Definition of Waterboarding

Watercourse: A stream usually flowing in a particular direction, in a definite channel, having a bed or banks, though it need not flow continually. | Legal Definition of Watercourse

Watered Stock: Shares in a corporation which is stated to be, or issued as fully paid but which in fact, has not been paid for. | Legal Definition of Watered Stock

Weapon: An instrument of combat; something to fight with - used or designed to injure or kill. | Legal Definition of Weapon

Weapon of Mass Destruction: Device designed to kill humans through the use of atomic or nuclear energy or the release of chemicals, poisons, biological agents or radioactivity. | Legal Definition of Weapon of Mass Destruction

Wedlock: Being married. | Legal Definition of Wedlock

Welsh Mortgage: A unique, now archaic species of common law mortgages where a person collects rents or profits in regards to specified real property, until the loan and any interest, is paid off. | Legal Definition of Welsh Mortgage

Wergeld: A fine set for injury or death of certain animals or person and upon which, the perpetrator was required to pay to the family of the deceased. Also spelled wergild. | Legal Definition of Wergeld

Wharf: A platform elevated over the surface of the water to receive or disembark passengers or merchandise from vessels. | Legal Definition of Wharf

Whiplash: Soft tissue (nerves and muscles) damage to the neck or lower brain area, often caused by a rear-end motor vehicle collision. | Legal Definition of Whiplash

Whistleblower: An employee who reports a supervisor or an employer's legal violations or wrongdoings. | Legal Definition of Whistleblower

Wild Animal: Animals that, as a matter of common knowledge, are naturally ferocious, unpredictable, dangerous, mischievous, or not by custom devoted to the service of mankind at the time and in the place in which it is kept; ferae naturae. | Legal Definition of Wild Animal

Wild Horse Annie Act: A 1959 American law that sought to restrict the use of motorized vehicles by cowboys rounding-up wild horses on public land. | Legal Definition of Wild Horse Annie Act

Wildlife: Animals living in their natural habitat and not within the possession or control of humans. | Legal Definition of Wildlife

Will: A written statement, usually signed, made by an individual, which directs the distribution of their property when they die. | Legal Definition of Will

Willfully: Acting voluntarily, deliberately and intentionally. | Legal Definition of Willfully

Wire-tapping: An electronic surveillance device which secretly listens in and records conversations held over a phone line. | Legal Definition of Wire-tapping

Witchcraft: According to law books of the Middle Ages, the act of invoking evil spirits or consulting, covenanting with, entertaining, employing, feeding, or rewarding any evil spirit. | Legal Definition of Witchcraft

Witenagemote: An assembly of local elders in medieval England. | Legal Definition of Witenagemote

With Prejudice: A statement or order that is conclusive between the parties as to the dispute between them. | Legal Definition of With Prejudice

Withdrawal: A cancellation of a statement of defence or counterclaim by a defendant. | Legal Definition of Withdrawal

Without Prejudice: A reservation made on a statement that it cannot be used against in future dealings or litigation. | Legal Definition of Without Prejudice

Witness: A person who perceives an event (by seeing, hearing, smelling or other sensory perception). | Legal Definition of Witness

Wobbler: An offense known to American criminal law which offers to the district attorney the option of charging as a misdemeanor or as a felony. | Legal Definition of Wobbler

Women's Court: An in camera court set up to hear cases involving women. | Legal Definition of Women's Court

Words of Limitation: Words in a conveyance or in a will which set the duration of an estate. | Legal Definition of Words of Limitation

Words of Purchase: Also known as words of substitution; words which describe what should happen to a gift if the person first named is no longer alive when it takes effect. | Legal Definition of Words of Purchase

Workers' Compensation: A public benefit scheme in which qualified workers who are injured in the workplace, receive compensation, commensurate with their degree of injury, regardless of fault. | Legal Definition of Workers' Compensation

World Wide Web: The aggregate of active web sites forming and available through and on the Internet. | Legal Definition of World Wide Web

Wreck: An abandoned vessel, or something abandoned off a vessel, which is either afloat, stranded, aground or sunken. | Legal Definition of Wreck

Writ: An official court document, signed by a judge or bearing an official court seal, which commands the person to whom it is addressed, to do something specific. | Legal Definition of Writ

Wrongful: An act or omission that exposes a person to civil or criminal liability. | Legal Definition of Wrongful

Wrongful Birth: A mother's claim in tort that she would not to have given birth to the child with serious genetic defects but for the defendant's negligence in testing or counselling. | Legal Definition of Wrongful Birth

Wrongful Conviction: A conviction of a person accused of a crime which, in the result of subsequent investigation, proves erroneous. | Legal Definition of Wrongful Conviction

Wrongful Death: A law action which claims damages from any person who, through negligence or direct act or omission, caused the death of certain relatives (eg. spouse, children or parent). | Legal Definition of Wrongful Death

Wrongful Discharge: The unlawful discharge (dismissal) of an employee. | Legal Definition of Wrongful Discharge

Wrongful Dismissal: The unlawful termination of an employment contract. | Legal Definition of Wrongful Dismissal

Wrongful Invasion: In the context of the tort of nuisance, the enjoyment of property rights of another. | Legal Definition of Wrongful Invasion

Wrongful Life: A child's tort claim for bringing the child to birth where the person so doing knew or ought to have known that the child would be born into a life of painful and debilitating disease. | Legal Definition of Wrongful Life

Wrongful Pregnancy: A tort claim alleging that the defendant's negligence has caused an unwanted pregnancy and birth. | Legal Definition of Wrongful Pregnancy

Wrongful Termination: The unlawful termination of an employment contract. | Legal Definition of Wrongful Termination