Abduction: Taking away by violence or fraud and persuasion: kidnapping. Usually a female or wife, child or ward.

Abstraction: Taking away with intent to harm or deceive.

Abstract of Judgment: A type of document to be filed with the court to keep a civil judgment or federal and/or state lien “open” until satisfied.

ABWIK; South Carolina: Assault & batter with intent to kill.

Accelerated Rehabilitation Disposition (ARD): For a criminal case; 1st offender program. If program is completed and fines/costs are paid, there is a possibility that the charge(s) might be dismissed.

Accessory: Not the perpetrator of the crime but in some way involved. One who aids or contributes in a secondary way or assists in or contributes to crime as a subordinate.

Accessory After the Fact: One who receives, comforts, or assists a felon knowing that he/she has committed a felony or is sought in connection with the commission or attempted commission of a felony.

Accessory Before the Fact: One who procures, counsels, or commands the deed perpetrated, but who is not present, actively or constructively, as such perpetration.

Accusatory Instrument: Refers to the initial pleading or other paper, which forms the procedural basis for a criminal charge. An accusatory instrument can include and indictment, accusation, or information. If the accusatory instrument is defective, the entire proceeding will be rendered null and void.

Acquittal: A legal judgment that an accused is not guilt of the crime for which he or she has been charged and tried.

Action: A court proceeding wherein one party prosecutes another party for a wrong done, or for protection of a right or prevention of a wrong.

Active Case: Case is currently active.

Adjourn: To postpone; to delay briefly a court proceeding through recess. An adjournment for a longer duration is termed continuance.

Adjudication: The determination of a controversy and pronouncement of judgment.

Adjudication is Withheld: The court will withhold a decision until a future date. Usually some sort of probation is added and if the defendant complies with the conditions for a specified period of time, the case will be dismissed.

Adverse Action: Adverse action means any denial of employment or any other decision made for employment, which adversely affects any current or prospective employee.

Adverse Action Notice: This notice, which is a letter or other document informing the job applicant he or she has been denied employment, is necessary when using the services of a consumer reporting agency and the employer is making an adverse employment decision on the basis of the consumer report provided by the consumer reporting agency. This document must contain the name, address, and phone number of the employment screening company, a statement that the employer, not the background screening company, is responsible for making the adverse decision, and a notice that the individual has the right to dispute the accuracy or completeness of any of the information in the report. The Adverse Action Notice must be preceded by a “Pre- Adverse Action Notice.”

Affidavit: A voluntary, written statement of fact, confirmed by oath.

Aggravated Assault: An assault where serious bodily injury is inflicted on the person assaulted, including assaults with a dangerous or deadly weapon.

Aiding and Abetting: To assist and/or incite another to commit a crime.

Alias (AKA): “Otherwise known as”; an indication that a person is known by more than one name.

Alien: One who is not a citizen of the country in which he/she lives.

Alimony: Court-ordered payment of support of one’s estranged spouse in the case of divorce or separation.

Annul: To make void; to dissolve that which once existed, as to annul a marriage. Annulment wipes out or invalidates the entire marriage, whereas a divorce only ends a marriage from that point on and does not affect the former validity of the marriage.

Antitrust Acts or Laws: Laws to protect trade or commerce from unlawful practice.

Appeal: A request to a higher court to review and reverse the decision of a lower court. ON an appeal, no new evidence is introduced. The higher court is limited to considering whether the lower court erred on a question of law or gave a decision plainly contrary to the evidence presented in the trial. An appeal cannot be made until the lower court renders a final judgment.

Appellant: One who makes a complaint to a superior court to review the decision of a lower court.

Appellate Court: A court having jurisdiction to review the law as applied to a prior determination of the same case; “not a forum in which to make a new case. It is merely a court of review to determine whether or not the rulings and judgment of the court below upon the case as made were correct.” 24 S.E. 913 Not a trial court.

Application for Employment: The application from should be carefully designed to solicit needed information without subjecting the company to unwanted litigation. Since the passage of Title VII, the Age Discrimination and Employment Act (ADEA) and the Americans with disabilities Act (ADA), employers have revised most forms to delete questions that refer to protected categories such as race, age, national origin, religion, gender or disability. The application should also contain a certification by the applicant which acknowledges that falsified, misleading, or omitted information on the application will (not “may”) result in a decision not to hire the applicant, or if hired, a decision to terminate regardless of the date of discovery. This policy, as with all others, should be consistently followed.

Appropriate: To take something from another for one’s own use or benefit.

Arbitration: Submitting a controversy to an impartial person, the arbitrator, chosen by the tow parties in the dispute to determine an equitable settlement. Where the parties agree to be bound by the determination of the arbitrator, the process is called Binding Arbitration.

Arbitrator: An impartial person chosen by the parties to solve a dispute between them, who is empowered to make a final determination concerning the issue(s) in controversy, who is bound only by his/her own discretion, and from whose decision there is no appeal.

Archive/Archives: The place where records are stored after a certain specified period of time. The period of time a record is held at a court of record may differ between courts and states.

ARD (Accelerated Rehabilitation Disposition): For a criminal case; 1st offender program. If program is completed and fines/costs are paid, there is a possibility that the charge(s) might be dismissed.

Armed Robbery: Robbery aggravated by the fact that it is committed by a defendant armed with a dangerous weapon, whether or not the weapon is used in the course of committing the crime.

Arraign: To bring a defendant to court to answer the charge under which an indictment has been handed down.

Arraignment: An initial step in the criminal process in which the defendant is formally charged with an offense, given a copy of the complaint, indictment, information, or other accusatory instrument, and informed of his/her constitutional rights, including the pleas he/she may enter.

Arrears / Arrearages: That which is unpaid although due to be paid. A person in arrears is behind in payment.

Arrest: The taking or keeping of a person in custody by legal authority, especially in response to a criminal charge; specifically, the apprehension of someone for the purpose of securing the administration of the law, especially of bringing that person before a court.

Arson: The attempted or intentional destruction of property by fire or explosion.