Glossary
Legal glossary
Short, plain-English definitions of legal-procedure and ethics terms — written for solo attorneys.
- 12(b)(6) motion
- A motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6).
- ABA Formal Opinion 512
- The American Bar Association's 2024 ethics opinion on generative AI in legal practice.
- Affidavit
- A written statement of facts sworn under oath before a notary or other authorized officer.
- AI hallucination
- A confident but fabricated output from a language model — in law, a cited case that does not exist.
- AI use disclosure
- Disclosure to clients that AI tools are used in their representation.
- Citation validation
- Verifying that a cited case, statute, or rule actually exists and says what the brief claims.
- Conflict check
- The pre-engagement search for conflicts of interest under Rules 1.7 and 1.9.
- Contingency fee
- A fee paid only if the lawyer obtains a recovery, calculated as a percentage of it.
- CourtListener
- A free, public database of US case law maintained by the Free Law Project.
- Demand letter
- A pre-suit letter asserting a claim and demanding payment or action by a deadline.
- Deposition
- Sworn, out-of-court oral testimony of a witness taken during discovery.
- Discovery
- The pre-trial process by which parties obtain evidence from each other.
- EEOC charge
- A formal complaint of employment discrimination filed with the EEOC.
- Engagement letter
- The written agreement establishing the scope, fees, and terms of legal representation.
- Fee-shifting
- A rule or statute making the losing party pay the prevailing party's attorney's fees.
- Force majeure
- A clause excusing performance when extraordinary events beyond a party's control intervene.
- Form AO-240
- The federal form used to apply for in forma pauperis status.
- FRCP Rule 12
- Federal rule governing pre-answer motions and defenses.
- FRCP Rule 6
- Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 6 governs computing time periods in federal court.
- In forma pauperis (IFP)
- Permission to proceed in federal court without paying the filing fee.
- Indemnification
- A contractual promise by one party to cover specified losses of another.
- IOLTA
- Interest on Lawyers' Trust Accounts — pooled accounts holding client funds, with interest funding legal aid.
- Legal holiday (federal)
- A federal holiday that extends a filing deadline under FRCP 6(a)(6).
- Master services agreement (MSA)
- A framework contract governing an ongoing relationship, with specific work added via SOWs.
- Meet and confer
- A required good-faith conference between parties before bringing certain motions, especially discovery disputes.
- Motion for summary judgment
- A motion under FRCP 56 to decide a case (or issue) without trial when there is no genuine dispute of material fact.
- Motion to compel
- A motion asking the court to order a party to provide discovery it has wrongfully withheld.
- No-training data posture
- A contractual commitment that a vendor will not use your inputs to train its AI models.
- Non-disclosure agreement (NDA)
- A contract protecting confidential information shared between parties.
- Pinpoint citation (pin cite)
- A citation to the specific page where a proposition appears, not just the case's first page.
- Power of attorney
- A document authorizing one person to act on another's behalf.
- Pro bono
- Legal services provided free of charge for the public good.
- Pro se
- Representing oneself in court without a lawyer.
- Probate
- The court-supervised process of administering a deceased person's estate.
- QDRO
- A Qualified Domestic Relations Order dividing a retirement plan in divorce.
- Request for Evidence (RFE)
- A USCIS notice asking for additional evidence to decide an immigration petition.
- Retainer
- An advance payment a client makes to secure a lawyer's services.
- Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG)
- Constraining an AI answer to documents retrieved from a real database before generation.
- Revocable living trust
- A trust the grantor can amend or revoke during life, used to avoid probate.
- Rule 1.1 (Competence)
- The ABA Model Rule requiring lawyers to provide competent representation.
- Rule 1.7 conflict
- A concurrent conflict of interest under ABA Model Rule 1.7 between two current clients.
- Rule 1.9 conflict
- A conflict involving a former client under ABA Model Rule 1.9.
- Rule 11 sanctions
- Penalties for filing papers that are frivolous, baseless, or filed for an improper purpose.
- Rule 26(a)(1) initial disclosures
- Mandatory automatic disclosures required of every party in federal civil litigation.
- Rule 26(f) conference
- The parties' planning conference required before initial disclosures and the scheduling order.
- Shepardize
- To check a citation against later case history to confirm it is still good law.
- Statute of limitations
- The legal deadline for filing a particular kind of claim.
- Tolling
- A pause or delay in the running of the statute of limitations.
- Twombly/Iqbal pleading standard
- The federal pleading standard requiring "plausible" factual allegations.
- Voir dire
- The jury-selection questioning of prospective jurors to identify bias.