Episode 3

Back to the Basics: Legal Lingo

Join us as we take the mess of legal language back to the basics of legal lingo in this week's mini-episode!

Published on February 19, 2023. Hosted by Carys Sherer.

Episode Transcript

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CARYS: Welcome back or welcome to The Next Voter, a platform dedicated to empowering youth to be the change. I’m your host Carys Sherer, the founder and executive contributor for The Next Voter. As always I’m glad to have you join me today!

Today’s mini episode will truly take us back to the basics as we’re going to be defining 5 of some of the most commonly used legal terms. Although it’s often rare to hear many of these terms outside of a legal context, knowing them might put you one step ahead if you or a loved one has to go to court, you have a new contract to sign, or you really want that one Mock Trial kid to pipe down. So, without further ado, let’s get started!


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CARYS: We’ll start with the fairly common de facto. Literally translated from Latin as “in fact.” It’s used to describe practices that are being used despite not being officially recognized by any laws. The most common example is how the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom use English for government, economics, and correspondence despite not officially recognizing a national language. Japan uses Japanese, but doesn’t officially recognize it, and Mexico has the same situation just with Spanish. 


Next is counsel which in the legal world is your lawyers and any legal advice they may give. Sometimes, people use the words lawyer and counsel interchangeably. This is especially true in formal settings such as local government meetings and professional events. Since it’s such a common word in everyday life as well you might hear it as legal counsel instead of just counsel.


Our third word is felony which is more serious crimes and offenses that tend to come with longer sentences and greater restrictions if they end up on your record. Felonies tend to alarm more people since they include horrific crimes such as murder, rape, and human trafficking. It’s always better to be safe rather than sorry, but you should know that not all felonies are for these crimes. Felonies can also include drug crimes, in Texas the possession of more than 4 ounces of weed is a felony offense. White collar crimes such as fraud and tax evasion are also felonies. 


In contrast to felonies we also have misdemeanors which are just offenses that aren’t felonies and usually have a maximum of only one year behind bars. Some examples are indecent exposure, shoplifting, and drunk driving. While not as heavy as felonies you still want to try and keep your record clean of misdemeanors.


Our final word is litigation which sounds super fancy, but it’s simply a broad term for the formal process of resolving legal disputes. This process usually entails the following: a plaintiff files a complaint with the court, the defendant is served paperwork, the defendant files a response, the discovery process unfolds, pre-trial conferences take place, the actual trial takes place, a judgment is entered, parties may appeal, and finally judgment is enforced. You might have noticed that you’ve heard parts of the litigation process before, such as trial and serving papers. It’s more often to specific parts, but it’s still good to know that litigation is the broader term for the entire process from start to finish.


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CARYS: That’s all for today’s mini episode! Hopefully, knowing some of these terms can help you in the future if any legal questions pop up or some know-it-all is being rude.  As is traditional I encourage everyone to continue with their own research and keep asking questions! If you want to learn more about the political and legal world, find today’s episode’s transcript, and much more be sure to visit our website www.thenextvoter.org. Also follow us on Instagram @thenextvoter keep an eye out for a brand new series within the next few weeks! Want to be featured in an upcoming episode or share your hot take in a blog, or simply have comments and suggestions? Message us on LinkedIn or email us at thenextvoter@gmail.com. 

As always, be sure to be the change. Have a wonderful week everyone! Bye! 


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Resources Used for this Episode