Legal Environment of Business - EXAM 1 (Chapters 1, 3, 4)

Professor Patricia Johnston, Arkansas State University Chapter 1: Introduction: Legal Foundations for Business Chapter 3: The Court System Chapter 4: Litigation Exam consists of 37 multiple choice questions with 2 essay questions.

57 flashcards · Law · by John Mark Webb

1. Property is a legal right that allows you to exclude others from your resources.

2. Property is the central concept of Western legal systems.

3. Property - the legal right to exclude others from various resources. Also called, "ownership." Administrative and Regulatory Law - concerns the public laws that protect, tax, regulate, or redistribute an owner's resources Criminal Law - provides public protection for private resources and punishes those who harm them Tort Law - protects and compensates owners through private civil lawsuits when their resources, including those they have in themselves, are wrongfully harmed by the actions of oth…

4. The world has two major legal systems: common law and civil law. The common law legal system emphasizes the role of judges in determining the meaning of laws and how they apply. The civil law legal system relies more on legislature than judicial decisions to determine what the law is.

5. Another way of classifying the law is to divide it into matters of public law and matters of private law. Public law includes those matters that involve the regulation of society as opposed to individuals interacting. Private law covers those legal problems and issues that concern your private resource relationships with other people.

6. Another means of classifying law is to divide it into civil law and criminal law. Civil cases may include suits for breach of contract or tort cases, such as suits for personal injuries. Typically, they involve a request for damages or other appropriate relief that does not involve punishment of the wrongdoer. Criminal cases involve a representative of government attempting to prove the wrong committed against society and seeking to have the wrongdoer punished by the court system.

   Don't confuse civil (or noncriminal) lawsuits with a civil law legal system, which is one emphasizing the importance of the legislature in determining the meaning of laws.

7. Another important classification or distinction in law is between substance and procedure. Substantive law defines the legal relationship of people with other people or between them and the state. Thus, the rules of law governing the creation or enforcement of a contractual promise are substantive in nature. Procedural law deals with the method and means by which the substantive law is made and administered. Basically, regulates due process. Thus, substantive rules of law define rights and duti…

8. Jurisprudence is the philosophy of law. Natural law theory asserts that law contains universal moral principles. Positive law believes that law is simply the commands of the state backed up by force and punishments. Historical school emphasizes that contemporary law should focus on legal principles that have withstood the test of time in a nation. Sociological jurisprudence supports the idea that law can and should change to meet new developments in society. Legal realism tries to go beyond the…

9. Stare decisis is the doctrine of prior precedents. The Latin meaning of these words is "let the prior decision stand." Under stare decisis, judges in current cases follow whenever possible the interpretation of law determined by judges in prior cases.

10. Lawyer fees Fixed fee simple matters routine will simple divorce land deeds simple corporation Hourly fee $250 /hour corporate hours Contingency fee percentage (%) of winnings

11. Hierarchy of law Federal law U.S. Constitution legislation passed by Congress (acts or statutes) State law all federal law prevails over state law state constitutions statutes or acts adopted by state legislature city or county ordinances Case law the judicial decisions that apply to your legal problem collection of past legal decisions written by courts and similar tribunals in the course of deciding cases

12. PROS and CONS of stare decisis PROS predictability fairness uniformity efficiency CONS times change distinguishable cases conflicts/confusion volume of cases

13. affidavits

    a sworn written statement made before an officer authorized by law to administer oaths

14. answer

    the responsive pleading filed by a defendant

15. appellant

    the party seeking review of a lower court decision

16. appellee

    the party responding to an appeal; the winner in the trial court

17. beyond a reasonable doubt

    the burden of proof required in a criminal case the prosecution in a criminal case has the burden of proving the defendant is guilty, and the jury must have no reasonable doubt about the defendant's guilt burden of proof

18. brief

    written document produced by a party for a reviewing court that contains the facts, propositions of law, and argument of a party it is in this document that the party argues the desired application of the law and any contentions as to the rulings of the lower court

19. burden of proof

    two meanings: may describe the party at a trial with the burden of coming forward with evidence to establish a fact also describes the party with the burden of persuasion

20. class-action suit

    a method of litigation that allows one or more plaintiffs to file a lawsuit on behalf of a much larger group of persons, all of whom have a common interest in the claims being litigated

21. clear and convincing proof

    the evidence presented by a party during the trial must be highly and substantially more probable to be true than not and the trier of fact must have a firm belief or conviction in its factuality

22. complaint

    in legal practice, the first written statement of the plaintiff's position and allegations, which initiates the lawsuit

23. counterclaim

    any claim filed by the defendant in a lawsuit against the plaintiff in the same suit

24. counterdefendant

    the party involved in litigation against whom a counterclaim is filed this party is the original plaintiff

25. counterplaintiff

    the party involved in litigation who files a counterclaim this party is the original defendant who is making a claim against the original plaintiff

26. default

    a binding judgment in favor of either party based on some failure to take action by the other party

27. defendant

    the party involved in a lawsuit that is sued the party required to respond to the plaintiff's complaint

28. depositions

    the taking of sworn, out-of-court oral testimony of a witness that may be reduced to a written transcript for later use in court or for discovery purposes

29. directed verdict

    a ruling entered by a trial judge after determining that there is no legally sufficient evidentiary basis for a reasonable jury to reach a different conclusion removes the jury's discretion

30. discovery

    procedures by which one party to a lawsuit may obtain information relevant to the case from the other party or from third persons

31. execution

    to carry out some action to completion with respect to enforcing a court's judgment, an execution involves the seizure of the debtor's property, a sale of the property, and the payment of proceeds to the creditor

32. extradition

    the process that one state uses to have another state transfer to the jurisdiction of the first state a person accused of criminal activities

33. garnishment

    a legal proceeding whereby a creditor may collect directly from a third party who is obligated to the debtor

34. interrogatories

    a written question submitted by one party to another in a lawsuit a type of discovery procedure

35. judgment

    official adjudication of a court of law

36. judgment notwithstanding the verdict

    the decision of a court that sets aside the verdict of a jury and reaches the opposite results

37. judgment on the pleadings

    a principle of litigation, in the form of a motion, whereby one party tests the validity of the allegations contained in the complaint and answer upon this motion, a judge might determine that the pleadings contain no issues of fact or law and thus grant a judgment prior to trial

38. jury instructions

    a statement made by the judge to the jury informing them of the law applicable to the case the jury is bound to accept and apply

39. long-arm statutes

    a statute that allows for a court to obtain personal jurisdiction over an out-of-state defendant on the basis of certain acts committed by an out-of-state defendant, provided that the defendant has a sufficient connection with the state (minimum contact)

40. motion

    the process by which the parties make written or oral requests that the judge issue an order or ruling

41. oral argument

    attorneys appear in person before the appellate court to explain orally to the court their position in the case and answer the court's questions about the case

42. peremptory challenges

    the power granted each party to reject a limited number of potential jurors during voir dire examination no reason for the rejection is needed

43. personal jurisdiction

    the power of a court over the parties involved in the litigation process

44. petitioner

    the party filing either a case in equity or a petition for a writ of certiorari before a supreme court

45. plaintiff

    the person who initiates a lawsuit

46. pleadings

    the system for defining and narrowing the issues by parties who file formal documents stating their respective positions in a lawsuit

47. preponderance of evidence

    in the judgment of the jurors, evidence that has greater weight and overcomes the opposing evidence and presumptions

48. request for admission

    a set of statements sent from one litigant to an adversary, for the purpose of having the adversary admit or deny the statements or allegations therein requests for admission are part of the discovery process in a civil case

49. request for production of documents

    a legal request for documents, electronically stored information, or other tangible items made in the course of litigation

50. res judicata

    a matter that has been adjudicated by a competent court and may not be pursued further by the same parties

51. respondent

    the party against whom a petition is filed, especially one on appeal can be either the plaintiff or the defendant from the court below, as either party can appeal the decision thereby making themselves the petitioner and their adversary the respondent

52. standing to sue

    you have to be someone directly affected by the legal dispute you are suing about

53. statute of limitations

    known in civil law systems as a prescriptive period, is a law passed by a legislative body to set the maximum time after an event within which legal proceedings may be initiated

54. summary judgment

    a judgment entered by a court for one party and against another party summarily, i.e., without a full trial

55. summons

    also called Citation, in law, document issued by a court ordering a specific person to appear at a specific time for some specific purpose

56. third-party defendants

    an individual or entity that is involved in a transaction but is not one of the principals and, thus, has a lesser interest in the transaction

57. verdict

    a jury's findings or conclusions on the factual issues presented by a case