Free Legal Encyclopedia: Directed Verdict to Do Not Attempt Resuscitation order (DNAR order)
Disability
The lack of competent physical and mental faculties; the absence of legal capability to perform an act. The term disability usually signifies an incapacity to exercise all the legal rights ordinarily possessed by an average person. Convicts, minors, and incompetents are regarded to be under a disability. The term is also used in a more restricted sense when it indicates a hindrance to marriage or …
Disability Discrimination - Rehabilitation Act Of 1973, Individuals With Disabilities Education Act, Architectural Barriers Act, Americans With Disabilities Act
Another frequently noted difference between discrimination based on disability and discrimination based on race, color, religion, gender, and national origin is the attitude behind the discrimination. For example, discrimination based on race tends to be rooted in hostility toward a different race. On the other hand, discrimination based on disability is often caused by discomfort and pity, or mis…
Disaster Relief - Disaster Relief For September 11 Victims, Further Readings
Monies or services made available to individuals and communities that have experienced losses due to disasters such as floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, drought, tornadoes, and riots. The term disaster has been applied in U.S. law in a broad sense to mean both human-made and natural catastrophes. Human-made catastrophes include civil disturbances such as riots and demonstrations; warfare-related up…
Disbar
To revoke an attorney's license to practice law. …
Discretion in Decision Making - Legislative Discretion, Executive Discretion, Judicial Discretion, Administrative Agency Discretion, Further Readings
Discretion is the power or right to make official decisions using reason and judgment to choose from among acceptable alternatives. …
Discretionary Trust
An arrangement whereby property is set aside with directions that it be used for the benefit of another, the beneficiary, and which provides that the trustee (one appointed or required by law to administer the property) has the right to accumulate, rather than pay out to the beneficiary, the annual income generated by the property or a portion of the property itself. Depending on the terms of the …
Discrimination
Local antidiscrimination laws have been used to deny funding to groups that bar members because of their sexual orientation. This was the case after the Supreme Court issued its ruling in Boys Scouts of America v. Dale, 530 U.S. 640, 120 S.Ct. 2446, 147 L.Ed.2d 554 (2000). The Court held that the Boy Scouts of America (BSA), as a private organization, had the constitutional right to bar homos…
Disfranchisement - Further Readings
The removal of the rights and privileges inherent in an association with a group; the taking away of the rights of a free citizen, especially the right to vote. Sometimes called disenfranchisement. The relinquishment of a person's right to membership in a corporation is distinguishable from a motion, which is the act of removing an officer from an office without depriving him or her of memb…
Disorderly Conduct
A broad term describing conduct that disturbs the peace or endangers the morals, health, or safety of a community. The punishment for disorderly conduct is usually fixed by statute. Under most statutes the penalty consists of a fine, imprisonment, or both. Some statutes provide that an accused cannot be imprisoned for disorderly conduct unless he or she has been given an opportunity to pay a fine …
Disorderly House - Statutes, Elements - Persons Liable
The liability of those concerned in offenses in connection with disorderly houses is not based upon their civil or contractual status. Some statutes specify who may be liable and in such cases, only those designated may be prosecuted. Partners, servants, and agents as well as the officers of a corporation have all been held liable for the operation of disorderly houses and the various offenses com…
Disparagement
Disparagement of goods is a false or misleading statement by an entrepreneur about a competitor's goods. It is made with the intention of influencing people adversely so they will not buy the goods. …
Disparate Impact
A theory of liability that prohibits an employer from using a facially neutral employment practice that has an unjustified adverse impact on members of a protected class. A facially neutral employment practice is one that does not appear to be discriminatory on its face; rather it is one that is discriminatory in its application or effect. Proof of discriminatory motive is not required, because in…
Disposable Earnings
That portion of one's income that a person is free to spend or invest as he or she sees fit, after payment of taxes and other obligations. State laws also impose restrictions on the garnishment of debtor's wages. …
Dissent
An explicit disagreement by one or more judges with the decision of the majority on a case before them. A dissent is often accompanied by a written dissenting opinion, and the terms dissent and dissenting opinion are used interchangeably. Dissents have several functions. In some cases, they are a simple declaration of disagreement with the majority. In others, they instruct, prod, scold, or otherw…
District Court
A designation of an inferior state court that exercises general jurisdiction that it has been granted by the constitution or statute which created it. A U.S. judicial tribunal with original jurisdiction to try cases or controversies that fall within its limited jurisdiction. A state district might, for example, determine civil actions between state residents based upon contract violations or torti…
District and Prosecuting Attorneys
The elected or appointed public officers of each state, county, or other political subdivision who institute criminal proceedings on behalf of the government. Federal attorneys who represent the United States in prosecuting federal offenses are U.S. attorneys. A district or prosecuting attorney is the legal representative of the state, county, or municipality, whose primary function resides in ins…
Diversity of Citizenship - Further Readings
Diversity of citizenship is one of the factors that will allow a federal district court to exercise its authority to hear a lawsuit. This authority is called diversity jurisdiction. It means that a case involving questions that must be answered according to state laws may be heard in federal court if the parties on the two sides of the case are from different states. No matter how many parties are…
Divorce - Further Readings
A court decree that terminates a marriage; also known as marital dissolution. A divorce decree establishes the new relations between the parties, including their duties and obligations relating to property that they own, support responsibilities of either or both of them, and provisions for any children. England struggled with the matter of divorce. From 1669 to 1850, only 229 divorces were grante…
Dorothea Lynde Dix - Further Readings
Dorothea Lynde Dix was a remarkably fore-sighted educator and social reformer who made major contributions to the welfare of persons with mental illness, prisoners, and injured Civil War soldiers. Dix was born on April 4, 1802, in Hampden, Maine. Her father, Joseph Dix, was an alcoholic and circuit-riding Methodist preacher who required young Dorothea to spend her time laboriously stitching and pa…
Julian Carey Dixon
Julian Carey Dixon was born in Washington, D.C., in 1934. He moved to Los Angeles, California, with his family at the age of ten. He grew up and attended public school in Los Angeles. In 1957 he left to serve in the Army, returning in 1960 to receive his degree from California State University in 1962. Dixon then went on to earn his law degree from Southwestern State University in Los Angeles in 1…
Doctrine of Equality of States
The doctrine of equality of states means one thing in legal effect, but it also must be reflected against the realities imposed by differences in political power. Political equality is in some sense a fiction, because in political terms few states are equals. More powerful states can establish arrangements that less powerful states assent to informally, even though under a strict legal regime, the…
Document
A written or printed instrument that conveys information. The term document generally refers to a particular writing or instrument that has a bearing upon specific transactions. A deed, a marriage license, and a record of account are all considered to be documents. When a document is signed and the signature is authentic, the law accurately expresses the state of mind of the individual who signed …
Document of Title
Any written instrument, such as a bill of lading, a warehouse receipt, or an order for the delivery of goods, that in the usual course of business or financing is considered sufficient proof that the person who possesses it is entitled to receive, hold, and dispose of the instrument and the goods that it covers. A document of title is usually either issued or addressed by a bailee—an indivi…
Charles Doe
Doe was born in 1830 in Derry, New Hampshire. He came from a wealthy and prominent family, and thus it was not surprising that he would matriculate at Dartmouth College. After graduating in 1849 he studied law with a New Hampshire lawyer for several years. At this time in the United States most aspiring lawyers "read the law" as Doe did, apprenticing themselves until they were ready …
Doing Business
The laws of each state must be consulted to determine whether a foreign corporation is doing business within a state to make it amenable to process therein. The phrase doing business is sometimes used in the assessment of local taxes upon a nonresident corporation in jurisdictions other than the place of its incorporation in which it engages in business. …
Robert Joseph Dole
The 25-year-old survivor was transformed. With new earnestness, he finished his under-graduate studies at the University of Arizona and earned a law degree with honors from Washburn University of Topeka. Law quickly led to politics. Dole served one term in the Kansas Legislature in 1951, and for the remainder of the decade worked as a prosecutor in his local county. He entered national politics in…
Sanford Ballard Dole
Sanford Ballard Dole was a prominent figure in the creation of Hawaii as a republic and its annexation to the United States. Dole was born Sanford B. Dole. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS in 1844. His parents were American missionaries assigned to Hawaii, and Dole was raised and educated there. After attending Williams College and his admission to the Massachusetts bar in 1868, he settled in Hawa…
Domesday Book
An ancient record of land ownership in England. Commissioned by William the Conqueror in the year 1085 and finished in 1086, the book is a superb example of thorough and speedy administration, unequaled by any other project undertaken during the Middle Ages. Minute and accurate surveys of all of England were done for the purpose of compiling information essential for levying taxes and enforcing th…
Domestic
Pertaining to the house or home. A person employed by a household to perform various servient duties. Any household servant, such as a maid or butler. Relating to a place of birth, origin, or domicile. That which is domestic is related to household uses. A domestic animal is one that is sufficiently tame to live with a family, such as a dog or cat, or one that can be used to contribute to a family…
Domestic Partnership Law
The area of law that deals with the rights of unmarried adults who choose to live together in the same manner as a married couple but who are not married. Domestic partnership law is evolving rapidly, in part because more individuals are choosing to identify themselves as domestic partners. Although any two adults living together in a loving relationship may be called partners, the term is most fr…
Domestic Violence - Further Readings
Any abusive, violent, coercive, forceful, or threatening act or word inflicted by one member of a family or household on another can constitute domestic violence. Domestic violence, once considered one of the most underreported crimes, became more widely recognized during the 1980s and 1990s. Various individuals and groups have defined domestic violence to include everything from saying unkind or …