Legal Terminology
What this domain tests
Terminology questions check whether you can read a North Carolina file and define its vocabulary precisely - especially where a familiar English word has a narrow procedural meaning, or where a Latin phrase does work a paragraph of explanation could not.
Procedural vocabulary in context
- Pro se (self-represented), pro bono (uncompensated service), sua sponte (on the court's own motion), ex parte (without notice to the other side), nunc pro tunc (now for then, to correct a record).
- Res judicata bars a later claim on the same cause of action; collateral estoppel bars relitigation of an issue. Stare decisis binds later courts to precedent.
- Nonsuit is a plaintiff's voluntary dismissal under Rule 41. Default and summary judgment dispose of a case without trial.
- Distinguish documents: an affidavit is sworn; a deposition is sworn testimony taken in discovery; a subpoena compels attendance, a subpoena duces tecum compels production of documents; an interrogatory is written discovery served on a party.
North Carolina usage
- The clerk of superior court exercises probate jurisdiction - not a separate probate court.
- A caveat is a proceeding contesting a will's validity.
- A special proceeding is a statutory summary proceeding, often before the clerk.
- Guardian ad litem protects a party's interests in litigation; a guardian is appointed for the person or estate under G.S. Chapter 35A.
Worked example
A document is titled "Notice of Hearing" and states the defendant failed to respond, so the plaintiff "moves for a default judgment and requests summary judgment." The terms are not interchangeable: default arises from a failure to plead, while summary judgment tests the merits on the record. Mislabeling them signals a file that has not been read carefully.
Traps that cost marks
- Using "plaintiff" and "petitioner" interchangeably in a Chapter 50B action.
- Confusing "judgment" (final determination) with "order" (interlocutory direction).
- Defining a Latin phrase loosely instead of with its procedural effect.