Law firm brochure
For new clients
Plaintiff
A plaintiff is the term used in a select number of jurisdictions for the party of people who initiates lawsuits before a court session. By doing so, the plaintiff seeks a legal remedy, and if the plaintiff is successful, the court will issue a judgment in favor of the plaintiff and make an appropriate court order. You may also hear plaintiff in a different variety of words such as a claimant or complainant.
Defendant
A defendant is a entity or person against whom some type of civil relief is being sought in a civil case or a entity or person accused of a crime in criminal prosecution. These are normally the criminals of a situation.
Complaint
A complaint is any formal legal document that sets out the facts and legal reasons that the filing party or parties are sufficient to support a claim against the party or parties against whom the claim is brought that entitles the plaintiff(s) to a remedy.
Summons
A summons (also known in England and Wales as a claim form and in the Australian state of New South Wales as a Court Attendance Notice) is a legal document issued by a court or by an administrative agency of government for various purposes.
Pleadings
A pleading is a written (formal normally) statement of a party's claims or defenses to another party's claims in a civil action. The parties' pleadings in a case define the issues to be adjudicated in the action.
Pretrial Conference
A Pretrial Conference is a meeting of the parties to an action and their attorneys held before the court. This is usually prior to the commencement of actual courtroom proceedings.
Mediation
Mediation, as used in law, is a form of alternative dispute resolution (ADR), a way of resolving disputes between two or more parties with concrete effects.
Arbitration
Arbitration is a form of alternative dispute resolution, aka ADR, is a technique that is used to find the resolutions of disputes outside the courts.
Trial
A trial is best known as a formal examination of evidence before a single individual referred to as a judge, and typically before a jury. These are held in order to decide guilt in a case of civil or criminal proceedings.
Preponderance of Evidence
A standard of proof that must be met by a plaintiff if he or she is to win a civil action
Verdict
A verdict is a decision on a disputed issue in a civil or criminal case or an inquest.
Appeal
Apply to a higher court for a reversal of the decision of a lower court