| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Consecutive sentences | Successive sentences, one beginning at the expiration of another, imposed against a person convicted of two or more violations. |
| Conservatorship | Legal right given to a person to manage the property and financial affairs of a person deemed incapable of doing that for himself/herself. (See also guardianship. Conservators have somewhat less responsibility than guardiuans.) |
| Contempt of court | An act of disrespect to the court, willful disregard of the court's authority. |
| Continuance | Deferring a trial or hearing to a later date. |
| Contract | A legally enforceable agreement between two or more competent parties made either orally or in writing. |
| Contributory negligence | A legal doctrine that says, if the plaintiff in a civil action for negligence also was negligent, he/she cannot recover damages from the defendant for the defendant's negligence. Most jurisdictions have abandoned the doctrine of contributory negligence in favor of comparative negligence. |
| Conviction | A judgment of guilt against a criminal defendant. |
| Corpus delicti | Body of the crime. The objective proof that a crime has been committed. It sometimes refers to the body of the victim of a homicide or to the charred shell of a burned house, but the term has a broader meaning. For the state to introduce a confession or to convict the accused, it must prove a corpus delicti, that is, the occurrence of a specific injury or loss and a criminal act as the source of that particular injury or loss. |
| Corroborating evidence | Supplementary evidence that tends to strengthen or confirm the initial evidence. |
| Counsel | Legal adviser; a term used to refer to lawyers in a case. |
| Counterclaim | A claim made by the defendant in a civil lawsuit against the plaintiff. In essence, a counter lawsuit within a lawsuit. |
| Court | Government entity authorized to resolve legal disputes. Judges sometimes use "court" to refer to themselves in the third person, as in "the court has read the brief." |
| Court Administrator/Clerk of Court | An officer appointed by the court or elected to oversee the administrative, nonjudicial activities of the court. |
| Court costs | The expenses of prosecuting or defending a lawsuit, other than the attorneys' fees. An amount of money may be awarded to the successful party (and may be recoverable from the losing party) as reimbursement for court cost. |
| Court date notice | A written form (usually mailed) that is used to bring the required person to court. |
| Court recorder | A deputy clerk who maintains the verbatim record of court proceedings on tape. |
| Court reporter | A privately employed court person who maintains the verbatim record of court proceedings. |
| Cross-claim | A claim by codefendants or coplaintiffs against each other and not against persons on the opposite side of the lawsuit. |
| Cross-examination | The questioning of a witness produced by the other side. |
| Cumulative sentences | Sentences for two or more crimes to run consecutively, rather than concurrently. |
Glossary
