Civil Litigation Terms

noun a legal procedure to recover goods unlawfully taken

verb to recover goods through a legal procedure

• The plaintiff filed a replevin action to recover the wrongfully taken property.
• The owner had to go through a replevin process to get their stuff back.
• They had to go through a whole replevin thing to get their things back.
• In a way, going through replevin felt like reclaiming a piece of their identity.

noun a word that refers to a person, place, thing, event, substance, or quality

adjective a word that describes or modifies a noun or pronoun

article a word that is used with a noun to specify grammatical definiteness of the noun

• In legal proceedings, the English Rule states that the losing party must pay the legal costs of the winning party.
• According to the English Rule, if you lose the case, you have to cover the other party's legal fees.
• If you get beat in court, you gotta cough up for the other side's lawyer under the English Rule.
• The English Rule of debate dictates that the person with the strongest argument will prevail.

noun a person who practices or studies law; attorney

verb to hire or consult with a lawyer in preparation for legal action or defense

• It is always advisable to lawyer up before signing any legal documents.
• Dude, you better lawyer up before you go talk to the cops.
• If you're in trouble, you gotta lawyer up, no questions asked.
• When facing a tough situation, sometimes you just need to lawyer up and defend yourself.

noun a word that represents a person, place, thing, or idea

adjective a word that describes or modifies a noun or pronoun

• The judge adjourned summons for further investigation.
• The court put off the summons for more time to gather evidence.
• The judge delayed the summons for more digging.
• The legal team pressed pause on the summons to gather more ammunition.