Legal right given to a person to manage the property and financial affairs of a person deemed incapable of doing so for himself or herself. (See also guardianship. Conservators have somewhat less responsibility than guardians.)

Willful disobedience of a judge's command or of an official court order.

Postponement of a legal proceeding to a later date.

A legally enforceable agreement between two or more competent parties made either orally or in writing.

A legal doctrine that says if the plaintiff in a civil action for negligence also was negligent, he or she cannot recover damages from the defendant for the defendant’s negligence. Most jurisdictions have abandoned the doctrine of contributory negligence in favor of comparative negligence.

A judgment of guilt against a criminal defendant.

Body of the crime. The objective proof that a crime has been committed. It sometimes refers to the body of the victim of a homicide or to the charred shell of a burned house, but the term has a broader meaning. For the state to introduce a confession or to convict the accused, it must prove a corpus delicti, that is, the occurrence of a specific injury or loss and a criminal act as the source of that particular injury or loss.

Supplementary evidence that tends to strengthen or confirm the initial evidence.

Legal adviser; a term used to refer to lawyers in a case.

A claim made by the defendant in a civil lawsuit against the plaintiff.

An officer appointed by the court or elected to oversee the administrative, non-judicial activities of the court.

The expenses of prosecuting or defending a lawsuit, other than the attorneys' fees, which may be awarded to the successful party (from the losing party).

A person who makes a word-for-word record of what is said in court and produces a transcript of the proceedings upon request.

The adult probation agency for the District of Columbia.

A claim by codefendants or co-plaintiffs against each other and not against persons on the opposite side of the lawsuit.

The questioning of a witness produced by the other side.

Sentences for two or more crimes to run consecutively, rather than concurrently.

Detaining of a person by lawful process or authority to assure his or her appearance at any hearing; the jailing or imprisonment of a person convicted of a crime

An order, signed by a judge, which authorizes officers to bring a youth into custody (i.e., bring him or her to court)