F.O.B.: Acronym for 'free on board'; a contract whereby the seller of goods agrees to absorb the costs of delivering the goods to the purchaser's transporter of choice. | Legal Definition of F.O.B.
Facial Mapping: An identification technique which distinguishes unique facial characteristics of an individual. | Legal Definition of Facial Mapping
Facilitate: To make easy or less difficult. | Legal Definition of Facilitate
Factum: The written summary of a litigant's position to be taken and expounded upon in a judicial proceeding, including a concise summary of relevant facts and law and brief arguments with reference to authorities where applicable. | Legal Definition of Factum
Faint Hope Clause: Canada criminal law: a term in a 25 year prison term that salvages a remote possibility that the individual may be paroled prior to the full completion of the term of incarceration. | Legal Definition of Faint Hope Clause
Fair Comment: A comment made which though defamatory, is not actionable as it is an opinion on a matter of public interest. | Legal Definition of Fair Comment
Fair Dealing: A limited exception to the exclusivity of intellectual property allowing fair critique or private study use of the protected material, and with appropriate acknowledgement. | Legal Definition of Fair Dealing
Fair Market Value: The hypothetical most probable price that could be obtained for a property by average, informed purchasers. | Legal Definition of Fair Market Value
Fair Use: A statutory exemption to copyright for criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, or research. | Legal Definition of Fair Use
Falsa Demonstratio Non Nacet: A wrong description of an item in a legal document (such as a will) will not necessarily void the gift if it can be determined from other facts. | Legal Definition of Falsa Demonstratio Non Nacet
False: An intentional or accidental untruth. | Legal Definition of False
False Arrest: The intentional and total confinement of a person against his will without lawful justification. | Legal Definition of False Arrest
False Imprisonment: Intentional and total imprisonment of a person against his or her will and without lawful justification. | Legal Definition of False Imprisonment
Family: The central, fundamental unit of society responsible for the primary development and socialization of children. | Legal Definition of Family
Fascism: A form of government which is authoritarian, oppressively conservative, who believe in the supremacy of the stated national group, and which, at least initially, purports to vest law-making and administrative authority in the hands of workers or their organizations. | Legal Definition of Fascism
Fault: A breach of duty or negligence and, in some circumstances, the errors or omissions of others or of things under a person's control. | Legal Definition of Fault
Federal Paramountcy: A doctrine of constitutional law which gives priority to the application of a federal statute where those terms conflict with the operation of a provincial statute. | Legal Definition of Federal Paramountcy
Federalism: A system of government which has created, by written agreement, a central and national government to which it has distributed specified legislative (law-making) powers, and called the federal government, and regional governments (or sometimes called provinces or states) governments to which is distributed other, specified legislative powers. | Legal Definition of Federalism
Fee: A legal right in land; or a money payment to purchase a service or a right. | Legal Definition of Fee
Fee Simple: The most extensive tenure allowed under the intestate. In many common law jurisdictions, land is held in fee simple: as close as one can get to absolute ownership. | Legal Definition of Fee Simple
Fee Tail: A form of ownership which passes onto successive lineal descendants of the owner. | Legal Definition of Fee Tail
Felonious Homicide: The killing of a human being without justification or excuse. | Legal Definition of Felonious Homicide
Felony: A serious crime for which the traditional punishment is prison for more than a year, or death. | Legal Definition of Felony
Feme Covert: French: a married woman. | Legal Definition of Feme Covert
Feme Sole: French: an unmarried woman. | Legal Definition of Feme Sole
Fence: A structure which encloses real property, wholly or partially, to impede entry and exit. | Legal Definition of Fence
Ferae Naturae: Latin: wild in nature; usually in reference to wild animals such as monkeys or lions. | Legal Definition of Ferae Naturae
Feudal System: A social structure that existed throughout much of Europe between 800 and 1400 and that revolved around a multi-level hierarchy between lords (who held land granted under tenure from the king), and their tenants (also called 'vassals'). | Legal Definition of Feudal System
Fiat: A shortly-worded and short-form, often truncated, Court order. | Legal Definition of Fiat
Fiat Justitia Ruat Caelum: Latin: do justice though the heavens fall. | Legal Definition of Fiat Justitia Ruat Caelum
Fiduciary: A legal duty of loyalty and faithfulness towards another. | Legal Definition of Fiduciary
Fieri Facias: Latin: that you cause to be made. Mostly used to refer to a writ of judgment enforcement obtained under the old common law of England. | Legal Definition of Fieri Facias
Fifth Amendment: A US Constitution article which provides fundamental rights in regards to legal process such as the immunity in regards to self incrimination. | Legal Definition of Fifth Amendment
Fiqh: The law of Islam. Also spelled fikh. | Legal Definition of Fiqh
Firefighters' Rule: Public safety officers have no claim for injuries suffered during the performance of their duties on the premises of a hazard, even if intentionally created. | Legal Definition of Firefighters' Rule
First Amendment: The amendment to the US Constitution which sets out freedom of expression. | Legal Definition of First Amendment
First Degree Murder: The unlawful killing of another human being with malice, premeditation and deliberation. | Legal Definition of First Degree Murder
First In, First Out Rule: Each withdrawal in an account, made without particulars, is presumed to be a return of all or part of the oldest deposit. | Legal Definition of First In, First Out Rule
Fishing Expedition: A speculative demand for information without any real expectation about the outcome of the demand or its relevance to the litigation. | Legal Definition of Fishing Expedition
Fixed Trust: A trust in which a beneficiary has an entitlement to a fixed income. | Legal Definition of Fixed Trust
Fixtures: A chattel which has become real property by having been affixed thereto. | Legal Definition of Fixtures
Flesch Reading Ease Test: A legalese test against which insurance contracts are assessed. | Legal Definition of Flesch Reading Ease Test
Flood Waters: Waters which escape from a watercourse in great volume and flow over adjoining lands in no regular channel. | Legal Definition of Flood Waters
Flotilla Principle: A method of calculating the ceiling of liability in the event of loss while ships are under tow, using the tonnage of all ships in the flotilla. | Legal Definition of Flotilla Principle
Flotsam: Things found floating on the sea, issue from a ship that has been lost. | Legal Definition of Flotsam
Folstein MMSE: Summary exam used to assess dementia. | Legal Definition of Folstein MMSE
Fool: A human being in form but destitute of reason from birth. | Legal Definition of Fool
Forage: The act of searching for provisions. | Legal Definition of Forage
Force Majeure: French for an act of God; an inevitable, unpredictable act of nature, not dependent on an act of man. | Legal Definition of Force Majeure
Foreclosure: To eliminate a right of redemption on mortgaged real property. | Legal Definition of Foreclosure
Forestalling: The purchase of food products before it arrives, or as as it comes to a food market, with the intent to sell the same again at a higher price. | Legal Definition of Forestalling
Forfeiture: Seizure of private property because it was illegally obtained, is an illegal substance or the legal basis for possession has ended. | Legal Definition of Forfeiture
Forgery: The making of a false document knowing it to be false with intent that it should be used or acted on as genuine to the prejudice of another. | Legal Definition of Forgery
Formal Reciprocity: A form of international agreement wherein the signatories agree to give each other's citizens and corporations legal treatment no less favourable to that given to their own citizens and corporations. | Legal Definition of Formal Reciprocity
Forum Conveniens: The court or forum most suitable for the ends of justice. | Legal Definition of Forum Conveniens
Forward Contract: An agreement to buy or sell a specified thing at a fixed price at some future date. | Legal Definition of Forward Contract
Fourteenth Amendment: A 1868, post-USA civil war amendment to the US Constitution designed to, inter alia, give full civil and legal rights to former slaves. | Legal Definition of Fourteenth Amendment
Fourth Amendment: US constitutional protection against unreasonable search or arrest. | Legal Definition of Fourth Amendment
Franchise: A licensing contract in which a holder of certain legal rights gives another to sell or package those rights. | Legal Definition of Franchise
Franchisee: The person who receives, for consideration, the license to right to sell a product or service and to operate a business along the lines developed by the franchisor and using the franchisor's trade name or other designation. | Legal Definition of Franchisee
Franchisor: The legal rights holder who licenses, in whole or in part, those legal rights to another pursuant to a franchise agreement. | Legal Definition of Franchisor
Frankpledge: A community pledge in medieval England whereby a defined number of people were jointly held responsible for the denunciation of any crime within their group. | Legal Definition of Frankpledge
Fraud: Deceitful or deceptive conduct designed to manipulate another person to give something of value. | Legal Definition of Fraud
Fraudulent Conveyance: A transfer of an interest in property done with intent to defeat creditors or others of their just and lawful entitlements. | Legal Definition of Fraudulent Conveyance
Freebase: Cocaine which has been purified by dissolving in a heated solvent, and then burned and the fumes inhaled. | Legal Definition of Freebase
Freedom of Contract: That men and women have the liberty of contracting as they see fit with the expectation that those contracts will be judicially enforced if necessary, subject only to public policy. | Legal Definition of Freedom of Contract
Freedom of Expression: Freedom to communicate ideas without restraint, whether orally or in print or by other means of communication. | Legal Definition of Freedom of Expression
Freehold: Use of real estate for an indeterminate time. | Legal Definition of Freehold
Freight: The money paid by a person for the transportation of goods. | Legal Definition of Freight
Friendly Society: A form of corporate structure in the United Kingdom for the conduct of life or health insurance, pension fund or education-related business. | Legal Definition of Friendly Society
Fruit of the Poisonous Tree Doctrine: Bars the admission of physical evidence and live testimony obtained directly or indirectly through the exploitation of unconstitutional police conduct. | Legal Definition of Fruit of the Poisonous Tree Doctrine
Frustration: The inability to complete a contract because the object of it has been lost or fundamentally changed. | Legal Definition of Frustration
Fuck: To denunciate something, or a general swear word without necessarily referring to sex. | Legal Definition of Fuck
Fugitive: One who runs away to avoid arrest, prosecution or imprisonment. | Legal Definition of Fugitive
Functus Officio: Latin: an officer or agency whose mandate has expired either because of the arrival of an expiry date or because an agency has accomplished the purpose for which it was created.
| Legal Definition of Functus Officio
Funeral: Formal observances held for a deceased person, usually before burial or cremation. | Legal Definition of Funeral
Fungibles: Standard commercial movable things that are sold by measure, number or weight. | Legal Definition of Fungibles
Furiosi Nulla Voluntas Est: Latin: mentally impaired persons cannot validly sign a commit their will. | Legal Definition of Furiosi Nulla Voluntas Est
Furtum: Latin: theft or a thing stolen.. | Legal Definition of Furtum