Legal and Judicial Terminology and Procedure
What this domain tests
This domain tests whether you can hear a proceeding and place each term in the right procedural stage, so that unfamiliar phrasing does not derail your writing and so that you never transpose a ruling into its opposite. Georgia practice carries its own vocabulary that differs from neighboring states.
Core rules
- Pretrial stage: pleadings, motion in limine, motion to dismiss (Georgia's modern substitute for the general demurrer), rule nisi, order to show cause, calendar call, discovery, deposition, special master.
- Trial stage: voir dire, peremptory strikes, strikes for cause, opening statement, case-in-chief, direct and cross-examination, rebuttal, motion for directed verdict under O.C.G.A. § 9-11-50, charge conference, verdict, poll of the jury.
- Georgia note: 'voir dire' is used both for jury selection and for the examination of a witness outside the jury's presence on the admissibility of evidence.
- Criminal stage: indictment, true bill, no bill, accusation, arraignment, plea, nolle prosequi, dead docket, first appearance, committal hearing, presentence investigation, allocution, sentencing.
- Post-trial and appellate: motion for new trial, motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict, notice of appeal, enumeration of errors, remittitur.
- Latin and French terms to spell precisely: res gestae, corpus delicti, nolle prosequi, allocution, pro hac vice, ex parte, sua sponte.
Worked example
Counsel says: Your Honor, at the close of the plaintiff's evidence we move for a directed verdict. The transcript reads: MR. HALE: Your Honor, at the close of the plaintiff's evidence, we move for a directed verdict. Reasoning: the phrase 'at the close of the plaintiff's evidence' is jurisdictional housekeeping in Georgia practice - a directed-verdict motion must be made at that point to preserve the issue - so it is written exactly as spoken, without paraphrase, and a ruling of 'sustained' or 'overruled' is never swapped for the other.
Traps that cost marks
- Writing 'overruled' when the court said 'sustained.'
- Confusing an objection with a motion, or a ruling with a comment.
- Misspelling voir dire, res gestae, nolle prosequi, or allocution.
- Writing 'judgement' instead of 'judgment.'
- Assuming Georgia follows the federal name for a procedure; Georgia retains its own labels and code sections.