Oran’s Dictionary of the Law

Bibliographic Details

Main Author: Daniel Oran, J.D.
Other Authors: Mark Tosti, J.D., Contributing Author
Format: Book
Language: English
Institution: Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
Call Number:
Published: Dobbs Ferry, N.Y Oceana Publications 1970
Edition: 2d ed., rev. and expanded by Oceana editorial staff.

The Authors

Daniel Oran

Daniel Oran is a graduate of Hamilton College and Yale Law School. He has practiced law in Connecticut and the District of Columbia. In addition, he has been Assistant Director of the National Paralegal Institute, Professor of Law at Antioch Law School, staff counsel to a
member of Congress and the House Appropriations Committee, and president of Foresight, Incorporated.

He has written an internationally reprinted novel and business text as well as professional and popular articles on paralegal education, psychiatry and law, poverty law, and individual rights.

Mark Tosti

Mark Tosti, contributing author, is a graduate of Princeton University, Columbia College, and the Washington College of Law of The American University. He practices general business, entertainment, and intellectual property law, and was Professorial Lecturer of Law at
The American University.

In addition, he has been the producer, director, and editor of several feature films.

Introduction (from the authors)

This is a guidebook to a foreign language. The language of Law uses mostly English words, but they rarely mean what they seem. Many look like everyday English, but have technical definitions totally different from their ordinary uses. Some mean several different things,
depending on the area of law or business they come from. The language of Law also contains more “leftovers” than most languages.
Hundreds of Latin, Old French, Old English, and obsolete words are still used in their original forms.
When I wrote my first law dictionary in 1975, I hoped that most of these old words would be long buried by the first decade of the twenty-first century, but like Chucky, Freddy, and assorted vampires and aliens, they just won’t die. “Plain language” court rules and federal commissions can’t kill them. Things are even worse now. A flood of new technologies has created many legal sub-specialties and . . .surprise . . . an explosion of confusing new legal words.
The dictionary has two main purposes. Like any specialized dictionary, it helps the reader to understand and use a technical vocabulary.
It also tries to help the reader to recognize and discard the many vague words that sound precise and that lawyers often use as if they were precise.
The book was written with the needs of many different readers in mind: lawyers, law and pre-law students, paralegals, legal secretaries, consumers, businesspersons, and persons in law-related fields such as criminal justice, journalism, social work, and government. Because the
dictionary covers so many different fields, I need suggestions for additional words and definitions. If you have any ideas for the next edition, please send them to the e-mail address listed at the end of the book.
I have tried to make this guidebook as complete, clear and easy to use as possible. Using it, you will be able to understand most contracts, court decisions, laws, and lawyers.

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION ix
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS x
READING THE DEFINITIONS xi
PRONUNCIATION xii
THE BASIC 50 xiii
DICTIONARY 1
APPENDIX A Where to Go for More
Information 533
APPENDIX B Lawyer Talk 535
APPENDIX C Legal Research 539
How to Use This Appendix 539
Concepts in the Law 541
Techniques of Research 548
Sources of the Law 552
Computer-Assisted Legal Research 572
ILLUSTRATIONS
Organization of the Federal Government 543
U.S. Courts of Appeals and U.S. District Courts 545
Cartwheel 549
Sources of the Law 554-5
National Reporter System 559-560
Introduction to a Case in the National Reporter System 561
Example of Legal Subjects Subdivided 564