Ten Tough Legal Terms #2 Trivia Quiz

Answer: To be informed.

Usually abbreviated cert., this is an exercise of discretion by an appellate court to review a decision below. It differs from an appeal, which generally means that the appellate court is required to consider the case. Some U.S. courts have replaced this Latin term with "certification."

Answer: Return the goods to their rightful owner.

This is the little-used verbal form of replevin; an action at law for the return of personal property. Prior to the Civil War, some courts in northern states issued writs of de homine replegiando (personal replevin) in an attempt to protect fugitive slaves.

Answer: sympathy, but no money.

The word-order is strange: it's an injury without (legal) damages. It's similar to "de minimis non curat lex": the law ignores small injuries.

Answer: explained the key to their decision.

It has nothing to do with mathematics. Most lawyers can't pronounce ratio decidendi correctly, and none of us should use it in print. (It's pronounced rah-tee-oh day-chee-den-dee, but you didn't hear it from me.)

Answer: When the lawsuit against me is tried.

This antiquated procedure allows a court to seize a defendant in a civil case, prior to trial. Theoretically still possible in some U.S. jurisdictions, it is almost never attempted. Posting a bond is more humane, and more useful.

Answer: What's the legal authority for the government's action?

Quo warranto is one of the ancient common-law "prerogative writs" by which courts review the actions of government officials. There's also mandamus -- remember Marbury v. Madison? -- and habeas corpus and . . . you can't recite them all?!

Answer: this lovely mud; I wanted a flower.

In ancient common law, the transfer land was accompanied by a ceremony in which the transferor handed over a branch, soil, or something else taken from the property. Modern real estate closings are so dull.

Answer: He erected a fence on public land!

This was a favorite money-maker for medieval English farmers, along with poaching in the royal forests. Contemporary knaves encroach upon protected wetlands and parks. Contemporary clients mislocate fences by accident.

Answer: you lose.

A judgment "n.o.v." is a judicial rejection of the jury's verdict. Well, not quite. American law respects the decisions of juries, and they deserve it. A party to a civil case can make a motion for a directed verdict before the jury begins to deliberate.

The judge can "reserve decision," wait for the verdict, and then reject it after it is announced -- technically, on the basis of the motion that was made before the jury started deliberating. That way, the judge can wait and see whether the jury does "the right thing."

Answer: property acquired by Will - but not by Shakespeare.

The eponymous Rule did not originate with Shelley's Case, which was decided during the reign of Good Queen Bess. By Shakespeare's time, it was already well-established that if a Will conveyed a freehold estate to a devisee, but also mediately or immediately included words of limitation in fee tail, then . . . you know the rest, right? Anyway, it's about real estate and Wills.