DEFINITIONS of terms in LEGAL ISSUES

Law: A body of rules or standards of action or conduct
ordained or established by some authority. The
law of a state is found in statutory and constitutional
enactments as interpreted by its courts and contemplates
both statutory and case law.


Lawful: Legal, permitted by the law. Not forbidden
by law, not illegal.


Contract: An agreement between two or more parties
which creates legally binding obligations to do or
not to do a particular thing. A valid contract must
involve competent parties, proper subject matter, consideration,
and mutuality of agreement and of obligation.


Expressed: An express contract is openly expressed
in writing or orally stated in distinct and explicit language.


Implied: An implied contract is one inferred by the
conduct of the parties to exist.


Bilateral: A bilateral contract is one involving mutual
promises between parties.


Unilateral: A unilateral contract is a one-sided promise
where one party undertakes an obligation without
receiving in return any express engagement or promise
of performance from the other.


Civil law: Body of law that a nation or state has
established for itself. Law determining private
rights and liabilities as distinguished from criminal
or natural law. Laws concerned with civil or private
rights and remedies as contrasted with criminal
laws.


Criminal law: The branch of law which defines what
public wrongs are considered crimes and assigns punishment
for those wrongs. It declares what conduct is
criminal, and prescribes the punishment to be
imposed for such conduct.


Natural law: The moral or ethical law, formulated in
accordance with reason, natural justice, and the original
state of nature.


Case law: Law based on judicial precedent rather
than legislative enactment. The body of law founded
in adjudicated cases as distinguished from statute,
common law. It includes the aggregate of reported
cases that interpret statutes, regulations, and constitutional
provisions.


Tort: A wrongful injury, a private or civil wrong. A
tort is some action or conduct by someone (defendant)
which causes injury or damage to another (plaintiff).
Torts may be intentional (when the defendant intends
to violate a legal duty) or negligent (when the defendant
fails to exercise the proper degree of care established
by law). A legal wrong committed on the
person or property independent of contract. It may be
either (1) a direct invasion of some legal right of the
individual; (2) the infraction of some public duty by
which special damage accrues to the individual; or (3)
the violation of some private obligation by which like
damage occurs to the individual.


Negligence: The inadvertent or unintentional failure
to exercise that care which a reasonable, prudent, and
careful person would exercise; conduct which violates
certain legal standards of due care. Negligence constitutes
grounds for recovery in a tort action, if it causes
injury to the plaintiff.


Liability: Any type of obligation or debt owed to
another party. An obligation or mandate to do or
refrain from doing something. An obligation one is
bound in law or justice to perform.


Plaintiff: Person who brings a lawsuit; the complainant;
the prosecution in a criminal case. The party
who complains or sues in a civil action and is so
named on the record.


Defendant: The person accused in a criminal case or
sued in a civil action. The person defending or denying
wrongdoing.


Captain of the ship doctrine: This doctrine imposes
liability on the surgeon in charge of an operation for
negligence of his or her assistants when those assistants
are under the surgeon’s control, even though the assistants are also employees of the hospital (Nolan
and Nolan-Haley, 1990).