General Glossary Terms

The common term for emotional damages experienced because of an injury, malpractice, defamation, or other issue. Pain and suffering may include embarrassment, harm to reputation, disfiguring scars, permanent physical disabilities, and other negative results of a legal problem. Financial awards or insurance settlements are sometimes calculated to compensate someone in consideration of “pain and suffering” they have experienced.

A business with more than one owner that has not filed organization or corporation papers with the state. Partnerships can either be “General” or “Limited”. General partners share all personal liability for a business’s operations and debts. Limited partners are not responsible for day-to-day operations of the business and are limited in their personal liability for partnership debts. Limited Partnerships often include situations when one or more General Partners run a business and assume personal liability for it along with one or more Limited Partners, who are often passive investors in the business. The operational and ownership plans of partnerships can be legally clarified by having both a Partnership Agreement and a Buy-Sell Agreement in place. These legal agreements state how the business will operate and how it will be affected should one partner die or desire to sell their ownership or leave the partnership. A small business attorney can advise how best to operate a partnership.

Patents protect inventions and improvements to existing inventions. A patent grants an inventor permission to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, or selling their invention in the United States or importing their invention into the United States. There are three types of patents: utility, design, and plant. Typically, utility and plant patent last 20 years from filing and design patents have a term of 14 years. A utility patent will expire during its term unless appropriate maintenance fees are timely paid. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issues patents but the owner has to enforce the patent without the help of the USPTO. Patents are issued and enforced by country.

Refers to financial accounts that immediately transfer to a named person (beneficiary) on your death. The beneficiary has no access to the funds during your lifetime. Common Payable on Death accounts are life insurance, annuities, and retirement funds, all of which typically require that you name a beneficiary to whom the assets will immediately pass upon your death. Other accounts, like savings or checking accounts can also be set up as Payable on Death, so that the monies are not required to be dispersed by probate court.

Also known as “prescriptive periods”. In civil law, these are the laws that detail the maximum period of time that legal proceedings may be enacted after certain events. In common law, these legally maximum periods of time to begin legal proceedings are referred to as “statutes of limitation”.

Funds available for award to the employee forty weeks after the employee returns to work or after they were injured (if they can’t return to work). Permanent partial awards in Ohio provide 2 weeks of compensation for every 1 percent of permanent disability received. A worker’s compensation attorney can file requests for this award for their client when appropriate.

The party (individual) or entity who starts a lawsuit against another party (the defendant) in a court of law.

Also known as a plea agreement, plea bargains are the agreement in a criminal case in which a prosecutor and a defendant arrange to settle the case against the defendant. Plea bargains are often arranged in exchange for some agreement from the prosecutor as to the punishment and/or a reduction or dismissal of some of the charges against the defendant. In a plea bargain, the defendant may agree to plead guilty or no contest and sometimes to state specifically what the details of the crime were.

Characteristics that lawmakers have specifically protected from discrimination. The characteristics most often considered protected are age; race and color; national origin; sex, pregnancy; disability; religion, veteran status and disability. Some states and cities have further created protection against sexual discrimination to include protection against sexual orientation discrimination.