What is an answer?Defendant's response to allegations made by the plaintiff in the latter's complaint. When the answer is filed, the case is said to be ''at issue.''
What is civil procedure?Method and means of enforcing civil law.
What is a consent decree?Court-sanctioned agreement settling a legal dispute and entered into by the consent of the parties.
What is contempt of court?Failure or refusal to obey a court order. May be punished by a fine or imprisonment.


What is a counterclaim?Claim made by a defendant in a civil lawsuit that, in effect, sues the plaintiff.
What is a default judgment?Judgment awarded to the plaintiff because the defendant has failed to answer the complaint.
What is a deposition?Process of obtaining a witness's sworn testimony out of court.
What is discovery?Pretrial procedure in which parties to a lawsuit ask for and receive information - such as testimony, records, or other evidence - from each other.


What is a dismissal?Order disposing of a case without a trial.
Dispositive? Settling a matter finally and definitively.
What is an ex parte hearing?Judicial hearing with only one party present.
What is fact pleading?English system of civil procedures that required a high degree of specificity in the facts stated in the complaint. Used in one or two states.


What is garnishment?Process whereby money owed to one person as a result of a court judgment may be withheld from the wages of another person (who is known as the ''garnishee'').
What is an in camera review?A review that occurs ''in chambers''; in civil litigation, a judge may conduct an in camera review of documents to determine whether the are, in fact, privileged.
What is an interrogatory?Form of discovery in which written questions about a lawsuit are submitted to one party by the other party.
What is a motion?Application made by one of the litigants requesting the judge to make a decision.


What is no-fault divorce?Divorce in which neither party must allege or prove fault (adultery, cruelty, and so on) to dissolve the marriage; the grounds are generally incompatibility or failure of the marriage.
What is notice pleading?Type of civil procedure adopted in the 1938 Federal Rules of Civil Procedure that permits pleadings to be less technical than those required under fact pleading.
What are pleadings?Process of making formal written statements of each side of a case.
What is preponderance of the evidence?In civil law, the standard of proof required to prevail at trial. For a plaintiff to win, he or she must show that the greater weight, or preponderance of the evidence, supports his or her version of the facts.


What is privileged information?In evidence, communications that may be kept confidential or private.
Define quash.To void or annul.
What is service (in civil case)?Process of formally delivering the complaint or a subpoena to the defendant or a witness in a civil suit.
What is a settlement?Agreement about the disposition of a law-suit reached by the parties involved.


What is a subpoena?Order from a court directing a person to appear before the court and to give testimony about a cause of action pending before it.
What is a subpoena duces tecum?Order from a court directing a person to appear before the court with specified documents that the court deems relevant in a matter pending before it.
What is a summary decision?Decision in a case that does not give it full consideration.
What is a summary judgment?Decision by a judge to rule in favor of one party because the opposing party failed to meet a standard of proof.


What is a summons?Court order directing the defendant to appear in court at a specified time and place, either in person or by filing a written answer to the plaintiff