In family law, age of consent refers to the age one can give meaningful consent. If over the age of 18 years, meaningful consent is presumed. However the presumption may be negated if the person lacked capacity due to developmental disability...
family law
agency
Agency law is the common law doctrine controlling relationships between agents and principals. A principal-agent relationship is created when the agent is given authority to act for the principal. An agreement made by an agent is binding on...
agent
An agent is a person authorized to act on behalf of another person. The party an agent is authorized to act for is known as the principal. A principal-agent relationship can either be intentionally created or created by implication through...
alienation of affections
Alienation of affections is a mostly outdated law that allows a spouse to sue an individual that causes their other spouse to end their marriage. Separate from any divorce proceedings, the spouse bringing an alienation of affections suit must...
alimony
Alimony refers to the financial assistance and monetary support provided by one spouse to another after a marriage ends in divorce. Oftentimes, the receiving spouse must be unable to support themselves without the help of their ex-spouse....
ancestor
An ancestor is a predecessor in the family. In a legal sense, especially in the law of inheritance, any person whose estate is inherited by legal act or descent is an ancestor. The term ancestor applies only to natural persons. Predecessors...
annulment
An annulment is a legal procedure that voids a marriage and declares it null from its inception. Unlike divorce, the effect of declaring a marriage void is retroactive, meaning that the marriage was void at the time it was entered into. It...
antilapse statute
Anti-lapse statutes are laws enacted in every state that prevent bequests from lapsing when the intended beneficiary has relatives covered by the statute. Without the statutes, if someone were to bequeath something to an intended beneficiary...
appointive assets
Appointive assets refer to the property, both real property and chattel, subject to a power of appointment. Once the power of appointment is exercised, ownership of the appointive assets will transfer to the appointees.
For...
arrearages
Arrearages broadly refers to being in arrears or owing a debt. There are two main uses of the term. One refers to payments in arrears that are meant to occur after they are owed, such as wages paid a week after time is entered or for invoices...