A proffer is a mechanism to offer or present evidence at trial for immediate acceptance or rejection. In State v. Boyd, 25 P.3d 985, the court held that “proffer is a mechanism by which a party may create an appellate record of what the...
criminal law and procedure
prudence
Prudence is defined as a reasonable standard of judgment, management, and conduct under the circumstances, based on what was known or should have been known at the time a decision was made or the action was completed. Prudence involves a duty...
public corruption
Public corruption involves a breach of public trust and/or abuse of position by government officials for personal gain. By broad definition, a government official, whether elected, appointed, or hired, may violate federal law when they ask,...
public defender
A public defender is a criminal defendant lawyer for the impoverished. A public defender is part of the legislative public service program as a staff attorney. The court appoints the public defenders to indigent defendants who require...
punitive damages
Punitive damages, also known as exemplary damages, are the damages awarded separately from the actual damages from an event. Courts generally award punitive damages only when it is determined that the defendant has acted in a particularly...
qua
Qua is Latin for acting in the capacity of, acting as, or in the manner of. After identifying a person, the word "qua" may be added to signify that the rest of the statement pertains to that person acting in the capacity of whatever title or...
qualified immunity
Qualified immunity is a type of legal immunity that protects a government official from lawsuits alleging that the official violated a plaintiff's rights, only allowing suits where officials violated a “clearly established” statutory or...
quash
Quash means to set aside or to void. In a legal context, quash can be used to describe the process of terminating proceedings or motions or to describe the exclusion of evidence from trial. Examples of the usage of quash include "to quash a...
quasi-criminal (proceeding)
A quasi-criminal (proceeding) refers to treating an act in a civil case as if it were occurring in a criminal proceeding. It is a civil proceeding that may result in a penalty akin to a criminal penalty. For example, a person may be held in...
question of law
A question of law is an issue that is always resolved by a judge, not a jury, including:
A question regarding the application or interpretation of a law A question regarding what the relevant law is, if there are two or more mutually...