• actual damages – see compensatory damages
• appeal – the process of seeking review by a higher court from a final judgment in a lower court
• beyond a reasonable doubt – the burden of proof, the state has, to prove a criminal defendant guilty; a
• claim – a legal entitlement, whether based on tort, contract, or statute
• comparative negligence – the doctrine allowing that plaintiffs recovery the amount of their actual damages less the proportion of those damages that the plaintiff’s own negligence is responsible for.  see Comparative Negligence
• compensatory damages – money awarded in a verdict that accounts for losses that stem from the defendant’s actions
• damages – money awarded at the end of a civil case
• demand – a communication between a plaintiff and a potential defendant to ask for payment that the plaintiff believes they are entitled to before a lawsuit is filed
• discovery – the process of fact-finding before a trial
• duty – in negligence, the legal responsibility of an individual to exercise care
• enforcement – after a judgment is rendered, the process of making the defendant pay the judgment
• lawsuit – the process of exercising a legal claim or other entitlement
• mediation – a structured negotiation, that aims to get parties to agree to settlement before trial

Definitions, Continued 

• probable cause – a legal standard applied before an officer can make an arrest, before an officer can get a search warrant, and in some other cases
• proximate cause – causation that is recognized by the law for specific purposes
• punitive damages – damages that aim not to make a plaintiff whole, but aim to stop bad conduct, of the defendant and persons like the defendant
• reasonable suspicion – the standard of proof that police officers are held to when briefly detaining individuals; more than a hunch, but less than probable cause; must be based on a specific and articulable set of facts
• remand – when a higher court sends a case down to a lower court after an appeal for further proceedings
• retain – creation of a lawyer-client relationship either for a specific matter or generally
• settlement – an agreement where a party voluntarily releases their right to sue for a specific claim in exchange for another party’s payment of something of value, like money
• sudden emergency – see Common Defenses: Sudden Emergency
• unavoidable accident – see Common Defenses: Avoidable Accident