Free Legal Encyclopedia: Companies House to Constituency
Comparable Worth
The idea that men and women should receive equal pay when they perform work that involves comparable skills and responsibility or that is of comparable worth to the employer; also known as pay equity. Many jobs are segregated by sex. For example, approximately 80 percent of all office secretaries are female, and approximately 99 percent of all construction workers are male. Both jobs demand valuab…
Compensatory Damages
A sum of money awarded in a civil action by a court to indemnify a person for the particular loss, detriment, or injury suffered as a result of the unlawful conduct of another. …
Composition with Creditors - Void Agreements, Distinctions - Advantages
A contract made by an insolvent or financially pressed debtor with two or more creditors in which the creditors agree to accept one specific partial payment of the total amount of their claims, which is to be divided pro rata among them in full satisfaction of their claims. A composition with creditors is an agreement not only between the debtor and the creditors but also between the creditors the…
Compounding Offense
A criminal act in which a person agrees not to report the occurrence of a crime or not to prosecute a criminal offender in exchange for money or other consideration. The offense is also committed when a person accepts remuneration for encouraging a witness to be absent from a trial or employs any unlawful tactics to delay a criminal proceeding. The individual compounding the crime must be aware of…
Compromise and Settlement
Resolution of a dispute by mutual agreement to avoid a lawsuit. A valid compromise and settlement can be in any form, written or verbal. A writing is not required unless specified by statute, court rule, or the terms set by the parties. When the agreement is written, it must clearly state the intentions of the parties. A compromise and settlement must have the same elements as a contract: parties …
Comptroller
A comptroller, which is often synonymous with auditor, generally has specific duties including the supervision of revenue, the examination and certification of accounts, and the inspection, examination, or control of the accounts of other public officials. A state comptroller's major function is the final auditing and settling of all claims arising against the state. The chief financial off…
Computer-Assisted Legal Research - Recent Developments, Further Readings
When CALR was first developed in the 1970s, it borrowed Boolean search techniques from the field of computer programming. A Boolean search looks for a particular term or group of terms in a specific relationship to one another. CALR Boolean searches can include limits with respect to time: for example, court opinions are always dated, so an attorney can use a Boolean search to look for cases relea…
Computer Crime - Further Readings
The use of a computer to take or alter data, or to gain unlawful use of computers or services. The first federal computer crime legislation was the Counterfeit Access Device and Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (18 U.S.C.A. § 1030), passed by Congress in 1984. The act safeguards certain classified government information and makes it a misdemeanor to obtain through a computer financial or credit…
Computer Law Association
The Computer Law Association, Inc., was formed in 1973 to fill the need for mutual education by lawyers concerned with the unique legal considerations related to the evolution, production, marketing, acquisition, and use of computer communications technology. The association is committed to providing lawyers and law students concerned with the legal and practical aspects of computers, computer ser…
George Franklin Comstock
George Franklin Comstock was born August 24, 1811, in Williamstown, New York. He graduated from Union College in 1834, was admitted to the New York bar in 1837, and received an honorary doctor of laws degree in 1858. Comstock pursued interests in the field of education in addition to his legal career. He was a trustee of Hobart College from 1870 to 1877 and of Syracuse University from 1870 to 1890…
Comstock Law of (1873)
The Comstock Law of 1873 was a federal law that made it a crime to sell or distribute materials that could be used for contraception or But the United States was undergoing rapid change during this period. The industrial revolution was making a large number of jobs available to members of both sexes, and women were taking advantage of this opportunity by entering the workforce in unprecedented num…
Concealment of Birth or Death
The crime of refusing to disclose the birth or death of a newborn child. The offense is entirely statutory in nature, and state laws differ on its elements. In some jurisdictions the essence of the offense is the deliberate concealment of the birth; in others it is the willful concealment of the death. Intent to conceal the birth or death must be proven in order to obtain a conviction. …
Condition
A future and uncertain event upon the happening of which certain rights or obligations will be either enlarged, created, or destroyed. A condition may be either express or implied. An express condition is clearly stated and embodied in specific, definite terms in a contract, lease, or deed, such as the provision in an installment credit contract that, if the balance is paid before a certain date, …
Condominiums and Cooperatives - History, Condominium Ownership, Cooperative Organization, Further Readings - Advantages
Two common forms of multiple-unit dwellings, with independent owners or lessees of the individual units comprising the multiple-unit dwelling who share various costs and responsibilities of areas they use in common. A condominium is a multiple-unit dwelling in which there is separate and distinct ownership of individual units and joint ownership of common areas. For example, in an apartment house,…
Condonation
In marriage, the voluntary pardoning by an innocent spouse of an offense committed by his or her partner conditioned upon the promise that it will not recur. Whether or not condonation has taken place is important in the area of maintenance or support obligations. In many states, remedies for nonsupport will be granted only when there is a showing that the husband has been guilty of a serious mari…
Confederate Attorneys General - Wade Keyes Jr., Thomas Bragg, Thomas Hill Watts, George Davis, Further Readings - Judah Philip Benjamin
Judah Philip Benjamin (1811–84) was the Confederacy's first attorney general. Appointed by President Davis, Benjamin was confirmed on March 5, 1861, and served until November 21, 1861, when he was named secretary of war. As attorney general, he wrote 13 opinions on such matters as agricultural products tariffs, mail route contracts, and defense appropriations. …
Conference of Chief Justices - Further Readings
The conference maintained a lower profile since the mid-1990s and reaffirmed its commitment to improving the administration of justice. In 2002, it passed a resolution endorsing a report on public access to court information that seeks to bring uniform practices to the judiciary. In addition, the conference endorsed a resolution that seeks to make the system more accessible to self-represented lit…
Conference of State Court Administrators
Founded in 1955, the Conference of State Court Administrators is an association of the administrators of state courts and the courts of the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and Guam. According to the conference, its purpose is "to deal with problems of state court systems." Toward that end, the conference tries to …
Confession - Recent Developments, Further Readings
A statement by which an individual acknowledges his or her guilt in the commission of a crime. Confessions were always allowed as evidence in early English common-law trials, even when torture was used to elicit them. Not until the mid–eighteenth century did judges in England start to admit only confessions that they deemed trustworthy. To determine the trustworthiness of a confession, judg…
Confession of Judgment
The result of a confession of judgment was that judgment was entered for the plaintiff on the confession alone without further proceedings being required. A confession of judgment could also be accomplished if the plaintiff offered a cognovit actionem, a written confession made out earlier by the defendant. A creditor could demand that a borrower sign a cognovit note when the debtor first became i…
Confidential Relation
Confidential relations, also known as fiduciary relations, are not confined to any specific The relationship between doctor and patient is confidential: the doctor has a responsibility to act in good faith for the benefit of the patient. AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS relationships but refer to all those that are founded upon secrecy and trust. The duty of secrecy in such a relation is intended to p…
Conflict of Interest
A term used to describe the situation in which a public official or fiduciary who, contrary to the obligation and absolute duty to act for the benefit of the public or a designated individual, exploits the relationship for personal benefit, typically pecuniary. In certain relationships, individuals or the general public place their trust and confidence in someone to act in their best interests. Wh…
Confrontation
A fundamental right of a defendant in a criminal action to come face-to-face with an adverse witness in the court's presence so the defendant has a fair chance to object to the testimony of the witness, and the opportunity to cross-examine him or her. The experience of the Salem witch trials made a great impression on the other colonies. By the end of the sixteenth century, most of the colo…
Congressional Budget Office - Scorekeeping - Economic Forecasting and Fiscal Policy Analysis, Cost Projections, An Annual Report on the Budget, Special Studies
The Congressional Budget Office provides Congress with basic budget data and with analyses of alternative fiscal, budgetary, and programmatic policy issues. The agency employs more than 200 full-time employees. Seventy percent of these employees hold advanced degrees in economics or public policy. CBO also retains a panel of economic advisors, including a number of scholars from top universities i…
Congressional-Executive Agreement
It is now widely accepted that a congressional-executive agreement is a complete alternative to a treaty: the president can seek approval of any agreement by joint resolution of both Houses of Congress instead of by a two-thirds vote of the Senate alone. Like a treaty, such an agreement is the law of the land, superseding inconsistent state laws as well as inconsistent provisions in earlier treati…
Congressional Research Service
The CRS is made up of two reference divisions: the Congressional Reference Division and the Library Services Division. These provide reference, bibliographic, and other information services using advanced methods of computerized searching. The CRS is governed by a director, a deputy director, and a management team. The highest-level researchers are called senior specialists. They are often nationa…
Roscoe Conkling
Conkling was born October 30, 1829, in Albany, New York. After attending Mount Washington Collegiate Institute, in New York City, he moved to Utica, New York, where he studied law with a local firm. He was admitted to the bar in 1850 and was immediately appointed district attorney of Albany. In subsequent years, and while still in his twenties, Conkling made a reputation for himself as an orator a…
Connivance
The defense of connivance cannot be asserted in an action based upon a state's no-fault divorce laws. …
Conscientious Objector
A person who, because of principles of religious training and moral belief, is opposed to all war regardless of its cause. The objection must be founded on deeply held moral, ethical, and religious convictions about right or wrong. Although this limits discharges to those persons who object to war for essentially religious reasons, which are individually held beliefs, it does not restrict discharg…
Conscription
Compulsory enrollment and induction into the military service. Conscription first came into use as a legal term in France in 1798. It derives from the Latin conscriptionem, which refers to the gathering of troops by written orders, and conscribere, which means "to put a name on a list or roll, especially a list of soldiers." A person who becomes a member of the armed forces thro…
Consent
Parties who terminate litigation pursuant to a consent judgment agree to the terms of a decision that is entered into the court record subsequent to its approval by the court. In the context of rape, submission due to apprehension or terror is not real consent. There must be a choice between resistance and acquiescence. If a woman resists to the point where additional resistance would be futile or…
Consent Decree
A settlement of a lawsuit or criminal case in which a person or company agrees to take specific actions without admitting fault or guilt for the situation that led to the lawsuit. Most civil lawsuits are settled before going to trial and most settlements are private agreements between the parties. Typically, the plaintiff will file a motion to dismiss the case once the settlement agreement has bee…
Consequential Damages
Such damages include any loss from general or particular requirements and needs of the buyer that the seller at the time of contracting had reason to know and that could not reasonably be prevented by cover, the purchase of substitute goods or other alternatives. …
Consideration
Something of value given by both parties to a contract that induces them to enter into the agreement to exchange mutual performances. Consideration is an essential element for the formation of a contract. It may consist of a promise to perform a desired act or a promise to refrain from doing an act that one is legally entitled to do. In a bilateral contract—an agreement by which both partie…
Consignment
A consignment is an arrangement resulting from a contract in which one person, the consignor, either ships or entrusts goods to another, the consignee, for sale. If the goods are transported by a carrier to the consignee, the name of the consignor appears on the bill of lading as the person from whom the goods have been received for shipment. The consignee's name appears on it as the person…
Consortium
A husband was considered to have suffered tangible damages for injury to his wife and, initially, had the sole right to bring an action for loss of consortium. The loss of services that had to be asserted included his wife's general usefulness, household services such as cooking and cleaning, industry, and frugality. Eventually, the assumption evolved that a man suffered these impairments u…
Consortium/Intergovernmental Corporations and Consortiums
Quasi-business associations formed to provide services, arrange financing, or operate certain enterprises. The involvement of more than one state or institution can be advantageous in expanding the financial and administrative resources available to the entity and, in some cases, permitting services or products to be distributed on a larger and more efficient scale. Various banks, for example, may…
Conspiracy - The Elements Of Conspiracy Agreement, Quiz Show Conspiracies, Other Considerations, History Of Conspiracy, American Honda Conspiracy
An agreement between two or more persons to engage jointly in an unlawful or criminal act, or an act that is innocent in itself but becomes unlawful when done by the combination of actors. Conspiracy is an inchoate, or preparatory, crime. It is similar to solicitation in that both crimes are committed by manifesting an intent to engage in a criminal act. It differs from solicitation in that conspi…
Constable
In medieval law, a constable was a high functionary under the French and English kings. The importance and dignity of this position was second only to that of the monarch. The constable led the royal armies and was cognizant of all military matters, exercising both civil and military jurisdiction. It was also his duty to conserve the peace of the nation. State constitutions and laws in the United …