legal education and practice

Debtor-creditor law governs situations where one party, known as the debtor, is unable to pay a monetary debt to another, known as the creditor. Debtor-creditor law typically plays out through bankruptcy proceedings. 

Decedent is a term that is generally used in the law governing estates and trusts, in reference to a person who has died. Decedents have rights that continue after their death and the authority to take certain actions/make certain decisions through third-party representatives. The assets of a decedent are known as the decedent’s estate. 

A declaration is an official statement, or proclamation, such as an affidavit. If the person making the declaration (called the declarant) lies in it, the declarant may be guilty of perjury.

[Last reviewed in September of 2022 by the Wex Definitions Team]

Declaration under penalty of perjury is a statement of facts or testimony accompanied by the declaration that the person making the statement will be found guilty of perjury if the facts declared in the statement are shown to be untrue. A person will be guilty of perjury if they submit false testimony to the court, either orally or in writing, and the false testimony is material to the matters before the court.

A decree is an order handed down by a judge that resolves the issues in a court case. Though a decree is similar to a judgment, it differs in a few key ways:

Decriminalization is the process through which the legislature removes criminal sanctions against an act, omission, article, or behavior which is considered a crime. Decriminalization means it would remain illegal, but the legal system would not prosecute a person for the act.

Defamation is a statement that harms another person's reputation. The tort of defamation includes both libel, which generally involves written or otherwise recorded statements, and slander, which generally involves spoken statements.

• slander
• libel

A default judgment (also known as judgment by default) is a ruling granted by a judge or court in favor of a plaintiff in the event that the defendant in a legal case fails to respond to a court summons or does not appear in court.

A defense is an act of protecting one’s own interests. In common law, a defendant may use defenses to prevent or limit liability.