A Small Glossary of Terms

This page was last updated on Monday, May 20, 2013

Most states are ‘spousal fault states’ where the grounds for divorce are a breach of conduct that is inconsistent with marriage (such as infidelity). Fifteen other states are ‘no-fault states’ where a spouse may seek a dissolution of marriage without reason or cause. More women now are seeking divorce based on false or unproven claims. In the courtroom, you will hear and see words that you thought you knew. For an example the courts will use the word ‘conversion’ when they mean theft. Moreover, the courts use the terms ‘respondent’ or ‘plaintiff’ when they mean ‘litigant’. When two people are suing each other for divorce, they are both litigants.  The problem in our courts is that a trial cannot proceed without the plaintiff and some court officials and employees always seem to find the husband’s papers out of order or not properly prepared. A trial cannot proceed without a plaintiff and so they play the waiting game to allow the wife to file first. This means that she controls the pace of the trial while the husband's presence is tolerated because the 'Fix is in' and the result is known.

Accessory: An accessory is any person who aids or contributes to a crime or aids others in committing a crime or avoiding capture or imprisonment. An accessory ‘after the fact’ is any person who assists another knowing that they had committed a crime. An accessory ‘before the fact’ is any person who counsels or assists another to commit a crime and is not present when the crime is committed.

Accomplice: Any person who voluntarily joins another in committing a crime. An accomplice has the same degree of guilt and liability as the person who commits the crime.

Accuracy:  Accuracy is measure of conformity of a measure to a standard or true value. This degree of conformity is often expressed by a range that is equally greater than and less than the actual value.

Accuser: Any person who makes an accusation and is either a prosecutor, a plaintiff, or a petitioner depending on the court of jurisdiction. For an example, a prosecutor is a lawyer who represents the state. They have a special kind of immunity that prevents a person, who they have harmed or falsely accused, from suing them. This kind of immunity is called prosecutorial immunity and it is derived from sovereign immunity, the immunity of Kings and Queens and Inquisitors (see Tomas de Torquemada - Director of the Inquisition).

Actual Innocence:  Actual innocence is a situation where a defendant in a criminal case is innocent of the charges against them. This occurs because they did not commit the crime but the prosecutor said that they did. The only difference between a finding of innocence and a finding of actual innocence is who must prove their case. So the state does not have to prove actual guilt, it only has to prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt. However, at a post conviction trial, the proof shifts from the state to the convicted person. So if a convicted person can prove their case and then get post conviction relief, it is a finding of ‘Actual Innocence’.  In most venues, a jury cannot return a verdict of actual innocence and that leads to complications in a civil or family court trial. A person can be found innocent in a criminal court and yet lose his home and possessions in a family or civil court because the standard of proof in civil courts is much lower. This happens all too frequently and that is why most guilty women get away with abuse and then fraud.

Ad Hominem: This is an adjective that describes a moral principle that appeals to prejudices rather than intellect. In other words, if a point cannot be made logically or truthfully then attack a person's character. For an example, Julie claims that she had sex with Bob and Bob claims that he did not. Julie replies, "he would say that."  The point is that many persons accused of having an affair with another person would deny the claim.  In spousal abuse, any person would deny they abused their spouse though they did and would be more likely to deny that they abused their spouse if they never did.

Adultery: Adultery is the act of voluntary of sexual intercourse between a married person and someone other that their spouse. See Bigamy and Polygamy.

Adversary: Any person who opposes an accusation of civil or criminal wrong doing as do the terms ‘defendant’ and ‘respondent’ do. This is not a traditional term but a person can insist that it must be used when the term ‘Opponent’ is not used. The terms ‘defendant’ and ‘respondent’ imply guilt and that is why they should not be used. This term is not used in contemporary law but you can insist on it before the hearing begins.

Adverse Possession:  A means of acquiring legal title to land and property by continuous occupation of property in opposition to the rights of the true owner.

Alibi: A set of facts proving the impossibility that the accused could not have committed the crime. Some legal dictionaries define an alibi as an excuse and this is a sign of preconceived prejudice against factual innocence.  So an alibi was an excuse usually intended to avert blame or punishment.  This notion is a remnant of the (Fourteenth Century) inquisitions where personal rights and the truth were ignored.

Alimony:  A court ordered payment to support a former spouse after legal separation or divorce (see palimony and spousal support).

Amendments: An amendment is a change in a law or in a bill before it becomes a law. Bills often have amendments attached before a legislature votes on them. Now, a rider is an added condition that is that is appended to a legislative bill to secure an additional objective that may or may not be related to the bill. Amendments to the Constitution of the United States may be proposed in two ways.  Congress may propose an amendment if two-thirds of the House and the Senate approve. However, if the legislatures of two-thirds of the states ask for an amendment, Congress must call a convention to propose it. According to my information (as of 2012), this method has never been used. An amendment becomes a law when it is either ratified by the conventions or by the legislatures in three-fourths of the states.

Anon: at once or immediately; an abbreviation for anonymously; ever or always; ever and anon; from time to time; occasionally.

Antifeminism:  This is a doctrine opposes the equality of the sexes and the removal of inequalities among all people.  An antifeminist is a propagandist who seeks to prevent people from getting the truth.  While the antifeminists say that men are trying to suppress women, this is exactly what they are trying to do to both genders.  So in this sense, their propaganda is used to win support for their cause by disseminating lies to obscure the truth. They believe that when a lie is repeated often enough, it becomes seemingly true by sheer repetition. This is exactly what other oppressive regimes have done in the past and continue to do so today.

Assault:  An assault can mean a determined endeavor such as an assault on Mount Everest or a try at the world pole vault record. It may also imply an approach. But assault does not mean battery. In the past, assault was defined as any actual approach toward another person with the intent of threatening or injuring them but how do you prove prior intent? The problem with today’s definition of assault is that it includes a person’s apparent ability to injure another.  This means that a person can be accused of assault based on their size and gender and not on the facts. So the crime of assault does not require any proof of physical contact. So Maggie throwing or swinging a rolling pin at Jiggs is assault and if the rolling pin hits Jiggs, that's battery (the crimes of assault and battery).

Many states define sexual crimes other than male-on-female penetration as sexual assault rather than rape. But there are no national standards for defining female-on-male offenses. So these crimes are not included in those state’s rape statistics. However it is still important to report the crime because it is your right. The rules that apply to women also apply to men. While this notion may seem redundant, it doesn’t make it any less truth. The standards for defining offenses must be the same for both men and women. So in sexual terms, the slightest genital contact is sexual assault while the slightest penetration or envelopment completes the crime of rape.

In another form, an assault can be a verbal attack, a physical attack, a threat, or any act that one might interpret as to put them or another person in immediate danger or fear. Since people use this word to have several meanings, the witness has to clarify what they mean. For an example, what is ‘intimate acquaintance rape’? The problem is that people will interject their own interpretation rather than listening to what a person is trying to convey. So some people hear what they want to hear and see what they want to see.

Authoritarian: favoring blind submission and concentration of power in an elite leadership that is not responsible to the people.

Autonomy: Societies can be repressive and so autonomy refers to moral independence in an amoral society. It is the essence of self-restraint and freedom from repressive external control and the antithesis of repression. This concept is also known as sovereignty.

Bank Clearing Time and Bank Holding Time: This is time that the bank holds your money before you can use it. This also called the ‘Slack Time’ because this is the period that the bank uses your money to earn interest for itself.

Barratry: Barratry is the making of a lawsuit for one’s own profit. So when a person falsely accuses another of abuse that causes the police or a court to intervene, and their purpose is to extort for their own profit, then they have committed barratry. This profit does not have to be monetary or tangible and may include intangible possessions, considerations, and assets. So a false claim of abuse is barratry because the claimant decided to harass and defame the defendant in a public forum and perhaps make a profit. So even if the accuser fails, they have succeeded in accomplishing what they have set out to do. People will not remember the defamation of character but they will remember the accusation although it is false.  This is what false allegations do and that is why they are persistent.

Battery: The crime of battery is the unwanted touching or the use of force against another person. It is often combined with assault to mean ‘assault and battery’. The crime of rape is often called sexual battery when it should include assault because rape cannot occur unless the rapist and the victim are in sufficient proximity. So rape is a violation of a person’s autonomy.

Beeper Judge:  A Beeper Judge is usually a lawyer who issues temporary restraining orders after the courts have closed or on weekends and holidays. Most judges impose restraining orders without any proof or evidence of any harm. They are solely evidenced on the word of the petitioner (nearly always a female) who, as a group, are lying in more than 85 percent of cases to gain a tactical advantage in court. This is why being a plaintiff or a petitioner is best because those persons always seem to control the course of the proceedings and that leads to extortion. In some jurisdictions, nothing is more permanent than a temporary restraining order.

Benevolent Despot: a person with absolute power who works for the good of the people. A theoretical absolute ruler in political science who is all powerful and all good. The question posed is this, are these two terms incongruous? Or are they contradictory?  Hypothetically, this kind person could exist but there are some issues that must be resolved by people rather than by edict.

Bifurcated Divorce:  A bifurcated divorce is the division of a divorce case into two or more parts. For example, the court can end the marital status of a couple while settlement disputes such as child custody, support, alimony, and property division are decided later. It can also be an option when a couple agrees on everything but one specific issue, such as determining the division of an asset or the custody of a child. Since some cases take months or years to resolve, some couples may seek to have their divorce divided to change their marital status to single. For an example, a spouse wants to be single for tax purposes. This can be an important issue for the spouse who will be paying alimony because spousal support payments are a deductible expense. Another reason is that a party does not want to be responsible for their spouse’s debts especially if she or he is a spendthrift. Sometimes, one spouse will drag out the settlement negotiations as a form of blackmail, knowing the other spouse cannot get on with their life until the court dissolves the marriage. The kicker is that if one spouse files for bankruptcy while the divorce is pending, the divorce case halts until courts complete the bankruptcy. In this situation, the other spouse may seek either bifurcation or permission from the Bankruptcy Court for relief from the automatic stay. However, some states will not allow a divorce to be bifurcated while other states have different laws on bifurcation and what restrictions may apply.

Bigamy: The criminal offence of marriage to a person while married to another person.  Bigamy is illegal in every state.

Blackmail: Blackmail is a crime in which a person, using threats of force or fright, demands money or property to which the person is not entitled. The most common method of blackmail is to threaten to expose the victim to the public by telling the public about certain past misdeeds, whether real or pretended. The threat can also be to the physical well-being of the victim or a member of the victim's family. Blackmail is punishable by imprisonment or fine, or both.

Bribery:  Bribery is the crime of giving or receiving something of value to influence official action. Both the person giving and the person receiving the bribe are guilty of bribery. It is illegal for two reasons: (1) it usually involves a public official using his or her office for personal gain; and (2) it can cause officials to make unfair decisions that affect citizens. Bribery is a very old crime. There is evidence of bribery dating back more than 4,000 years. Usually, a person who bribes a public official is paying to get special treatment. This special treatment can come in many forms, for example, a company might bribe a public official to get a government contract.  In the United States, officials convicted of bribery may be fined, removed from office, and sent to prison for up to 20 years. Commercial bribery, the bribery of owners or employees of private companies, is also illegal in many places, but it is less commonly punished. No one knows how often people commit bribery, but many experts believe that most people who bribe officials are never caught. Bribery is more common in some places than others and strangely, some countries have made it illegal to bribe officials from other countries but not their own.

California Mutual Restraining Orders:  Once the Summons and Petition for Dissolution of Marriage have been filed with the court, the following standard restraining orders will be in full force and effect. These mutual restraining orders are issued automatically and apply in every case. These orders restrain the parties from:  a. Removing any minor child or children of the parties from the State of California without the prior written consent of the other party or an order of the court;  b. Cashing, borrowing against, canceling, transferring, disposing of or changing beneficiaries of any insurance or other coverage, including life, health, automobile and disability, held for the benefit of the parties and their minor child or children; and,  c. Transferring, encumbering, hypothecating, concealing or in any way disposing of any property, real or personal, whether community, quasi-community or separate, without the written consent of the other party or an order of the court, except in the usual course of business or for the necessities of life.  You must notify each other of any proposed extraordinary expenditures at least five (5) business days prior to incurring these extraordinary expenditures and account to the court for all extraordinary expenditures made after these restraining orders are effective. However, nothing in the restraining orders shall preclude you from using community property to pay reasonable attorney's fees in order to retain legal counsel in the action.

Catch-22: The notion of ‘catch-22' undesirable alternatives that cannot be resolved. For an example, any husband who uses his hands to ward off the blows of his wife can be accused of assault and battery because he didn’t leave. If he does leave, he may be charged with fleeing the scene of a crime.

Chain of Custody:  The chain of custody begins when the evidence is collected. From that moment, every transfer of the evidence from one person to another must be documented. This is to prove that no other person could have access to the evidence that could result in tampering. This is why it’s best to keep the chain of custody as short as possible.

Chattel:  Someone’s personal property is called their ‘chattel’ (related to the words ‘cattle’, slave, serf, and, bondman). It is any tangible or movable thing and it is not real estate.

Cheat: to deprive someone of something valuable by the use of deceit or fraud.

Check Kiting:  This is a scheme where someone establishes a false line of credit by the exchange of worthless checks between two banks. In the past this was fairly easy to do because the banks needed time to process the transfer of funds between each member of the banking system. This processing time was called the slack. Other names for this process are ‘Clearing Time’ and ‘Holding Time’.

Child Abuse:  A child is any person who has not attained the age of 18. Women are far more likely to abuse children than men.  In the same vein, women are far more likely to falsely accuse men without actual evidence to support their claim.

Child Sexual Abuse:  Child Sexual Abuse is sexual contact with a minor and penetration is not required to complete the offense. Any act that involves a child and is intended to sexually arouse any person, including the underage child victim, for sexual gratification is sufficient to commit the offence. In this context, the victim can be any person who is unable to make sexual choice because he or she has a disorder or other condition that prevents them from making cognizant choices and discerning right from wrong.

Clear and Convincing Evidence: This is a standard of proof that beyond ‘preponderance’ but less than reasonable doubt.

Comminglement: This is the failure of one spouse to safeguard the other spouse’s separate property such that it is indistinguishable from their own property. The simple word for this is ‘theft’ and the legal term is ‘conversion’ and by any other name, it is still a crime.

Community Property: In community property states, each spouse owns and controls their own separate property. This means that any property acquired before marriage remains the property of the spouse who owns it. It also means that any property taxes that arise from that ownership remains responsibility of the spouse who owns it. Other forms of separate property are gifts, inheritances, purchases, and income from leases, rents, and sales. The important principle is that separate income and separate property must not be commingled (mixed or combined) with other property.

Community Property Debts: In community property states, the courts may assign the debts of one spouse to the other spouse. The courts do this to ensure that the debts are paid no matter who incurred them.

Community Property States:  In Arizona, California, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin, the courts may also divide a couple's property and debts based on financial circumstances. Under the community property laws, property acquired during a marriage, except separate property, belongs to both spouses and is usually divided equally. Note:  Although this is the definition of community property, most courts do not enforce the law. Any abuse charge, even those that are false, is sufficient to deny a husband all of his separate property and his share of the community property (50 percent) although he paid for all of it.

Conspirator or Coconspirator: A person who acts with another (or others) to commit a crime by lawful or unlawful means.

Conspiracy: An act involving two or more persons to commit a crime by lawful or unlawful means. Conspiracy also includes the commission of a lawful act by unlawful means.

Conversion: The deprivation of another’s property without justification and without authorization. So conversion includes robbery, theft, larceny and embezzlement.

Crimen Falsi: This is any crime of deceit, falsehood, or fraud. Examples include forgery, perjury, subornation of alteration of a document (material alteration), conspiracy, fraudulent making of a document (forgery), perjury, and suppression or destruction of testimony. See False Arrest.

Defamation(1): the act of expressing false charges or misrepresentations that are maliciously calculated to harm a person’s reputation. The act of saying such is called slander and the act of writing such is called libel.

Defamation(2): Defamation is the publication or saying of anything that is untrue and is injurious to the reputation of another person or a recognizable group. Written defamation is called libel and oral defamation is called slander. Many women in divorce will claim falsely claim mental cruelty or physical abuse. However, in most family courts, this kind of defamation is ignored because it is considered puffery (an exaggeration or hype). However, many courts do not hesitate in evicting the husband from the marital home, though it is his separate property. This is why many people are now using marital agreements to protect their property.

Defendant or Respondent: A defendant or respondent is any a person or party accused of a crime or answers a Pleading. The term, ‘Adversary’ does not infer guilt. However, I prefer ‘Opponent’ because the term is accurate and does not mean or imply guilt as does ‘defendant’ or ‘respondent’. However, I will use the term 'Target' on my web site when I find its usage appropriate.  However, the term ‘litigant’ is always acceptable.

Deliberate Delay or Refusal to Appear:  Deliberate delay or refusal to appear is a sign of guilt and complicity. It only takes a few minutes to adjudicate a case when an litigant refuses to appear. Any other delay is a result of prejudice by court especially if the remaining party was falsely accused by the complainant to avoid discovery and disclosure of their unlawful activity (see Vexatious litigation).

Denial:  A psychological defense mechanism where confrontation with a personal problem or with reality is avoided by denying its existence. It is a refusal to admit the truth, or reality, about something unpleasant.

Depreciation: To lower the value of property. To deduct part of the original cost of an asset over several years as its value decreases.

Disorder:  A disorder is an abnormal physical or mental condition. For an example, a person may have a liver disorder or a personality disorder.

Domestic:  Relating to a home or family, a tamed animal kept by people. It is something existing or occurring within a country (not foreign). It is the differentiation between domestic policy and foreign affairs.

Domestic Violence:  Domestic violence includes the abuse of family or household members. So in this definition, a family or a household member may be any person who lives in a home that may or may not be related to anyone who lives there. So while domestic violence includes, related and unrelated individuals, family violence only includes related individuals.

Domestic Violence Charges:  A charge of domestic violence does not require that the accused to have lived with the accuser, it only requires that the offense to have been committed by one family or household member upon another. A family or household member includes a spouse or a former spouse, a person who is related by blood or marriage, and those presently residing with another person. It also includes persons who had resided together in the past, persons residing as a family, parents of a child, and persons who are related by marriage.  Moreover, it includes any person who claims to be a family or household member. However, these family or household members must be currently residing (or have been residing together) in the same single dwelling unit.

Domestic Violence Law in California:  Domestic Violence Law in California - California Health and Safety Code, Section 124250 (a)(1) domestic violence. "Domestic violence" means the infliction or threat of physical harm against past or present adult or adolescent intimate partners, and shall include physical, sexual, and psychological abuse against the partner, and is a part of a pattern of assaultive, coercive, and controlling behaviors directed at achieving compliance from or control over, that partner. Now how can anyone prove their innocence with these provisions? If someone was abused in the past then, why are they bringing it up now when the evidence had dissipated and is now in dispute? Moreover, the term 'adolescent intimate partner' implies an illegal relationship that should be covered by laws relating to illegal sexual conduct with a minor child.  But this is California law as it appears today (May 6, 2012).

Double Bind: a psychological predicament in which a person receives from a single source conflicting messages that allow no appropriate response to be made.  A situation in which a person has  to make a choice between two alternatives.  A dilemma.

Due Process: Due process refers to formal legal proceedings that occur regularly according to previously established rules and the precepts that support those rules. It also requires that the laws do not contain provisions that result in unfair or unreasonable treatment of any person. Since the government created the problem of false allegations, its victims are entitled to receive substantive due processes. That is why probable cause is the required element for arrest. However, this also means that any increase in the number of false allegations lowers any standard that depends on probable cause as a required element of arrest. So by increasing the number of arrests, the legal standard for probable cause becomes lower. So at some point, the police could arrest persons for being male. This is why the alleged victim and the arresting office must authenticate their reports under the penalty for perjury. The proof must lay with the accuser and not with the accused. However, in many jurisdictions, neither the accuser nor the officer has to attest the truthfulness of their own words and reports. This omission shows that the authorities expected them to lie.

Egalitarianism: The belief in human equality, especially with respect to social, political, and economic rights and privileges. It is a social philosophy advocating the removal of inequalities among people.

Embezzlement: The fraudulent appropriation of another’s property for one’s own use while it is in their possession. In contrast, robbery and larceny is the appropriation of another’s property while it is not in their possession.

Entrapment: Entrapment is any act of a law enforcement officer that causes a person to commit a crime so that the officer can arrest the person for it. Entrapment also includes any act of a law enforcement officer that causes a person to report a crime so that the officer can arrest the person for crime that didn’t occur (See False Arrest).

Equitable Distribution: The word ‘equitable’ does not mean ‘equal’ is means valid and fair. In actuality, the court apportions all assets acquired by either or both spouses, whether jointly or separately owned during the marriage. So, in practice, it can mean whatever the court wants it to mean. This is why false allegations of abuse are so common. They are a way of illegally acquiring property with the court’s support.

Eviction: The physical expulsion of someone from a dwelling or land through a court order. Upon a charge of domestic violence or the filing for divorce, one party is evicted from the home while the other party is allowed to remain in the home. Nearly always, the husband is evicted without his possessions but he still has to pay the mortgage, the utilities, and spousal support. The courts will not guarantee the return of his property though a restraining order is in effect.

Ex Parte: By or for one party or by one side where only one party (and not the adversary) appears before a judge. Such meetings should be forbidden but they are often used to deprive a person or entity of their rights.  Although a judge is normally required to meet with all parties in a case, there are other  circumstances where a judge is allowed to meet ‘ex parte’ with just one party. For an example, a plaintiff might request a dismissal based on new evidence before the appearance of the defendant. Sometimes judges will issue a temporary ex parte order based on one party's request without hearing because it would not change their decision by hearing the other side of the dispute. For example, if a wife claims domestic violence, a court may immediately issue an ex parte order telling her husband to stay away. Once he's out of the house, the court holds a hearing, where he can tell his side and the court can decide whether the ex parte order should be made permanent.

Expel: To force out by official action or to eject by illegal action. Under the law, a man suspected of spousal abuse may be ejected or evicted from his home without actual evidence that he did anything wrong. Moreover, temporary restraining orders always are available for women but never appear available to men who try to obtain one.

Ex Post Facto: The term ‘ex post facto’ refers to anything said or done after the fact. The concept is attributed to laws or other restrictions passed to restrict behavior that, when it occurred, was legal. For an example, a judge signs a restraining order that evicts a husband from his home and decides to make the order effective two weeks earlier. Now the husband has violated an order that never existed. So it is possible to write after the fact orders such that there is no way of knowing whether one's actions were or are legal or illegal.

Extort: to obtain from a person by force, intimidation, false claim, or by assumed, undue, or illegal power.

Factoid:  A factoid is an invented notion designed to be believed to be true because it appears in print or is seen or heard in the media. It is a synonym for hype (extravagant publicity) and that's all it is. 

Fagin: an adult who instructs others (as children) in crime (see Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist).

False Allegations:  A lie or several lies. (see refusal to appear or deliberate delay).

False Arrest: A false arrest is any unlawful arrest that is based on personal prejudice, or false information. Any arrest that allows a crime to be committed or any arrest that is contravened by a court order is a false arrest. See Crimen Falsi.

False imprisonment is any unlawful restraint of a person, whether by confinement in a jail or elsewhere, by threats, or by force. An unlawful (false) arrest is a form of false imprisonment. This is why a legal arrest may follow false imprisonment. So false imprisonment is an offense against both the victim and the state. Most claims of spousal or child abuse are actually variant forms of extortion. To my recall, no female who had made a false claim of abuse has ever been charged and convicted of that specific crime in the United States.

Family Violence:  Family violence includes related individuals while domestic violence includes unrelated individuals (see domestic violence).

Fascism: A political philosophy, movement, or regime (as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nationhood and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition. (Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary - Eleventh Edition, 2004).  But According to the Oxford American Desk Dictionary and Thesaurus (Third Edition, 2010), fascism refers to a right-wing system of government with extreme nationalistic beliefs. As an adjective, fascism is an attitude that is very intolerant or right-wing. Right-wing refers to the opposition to political or social change. This definition is contradictory because governments cannot function and survive without change. So these definitions of fascism are contradictory.  Actually, the term, 'right-wing' also refers to a seating arrangement in a meeting place.

Fascism: The tenets of fascism requires total control of political, economic, cultural, religious, and social activities. Fascism resembles communism but unlike communism, which calls for the government to own all industry, Fascism allows some range of private ownership under government control and this varies among these countries.  This is also true about regimentation, forcible suppression of opposition, and tolerance toward minorities.

Faust:  a fictitious German magician who enters into a contract with the devil.

Feminism: Feminism is a movement that supports emphasizes the economic, political, social equality of sexes. It is major part of a larger movement for both men and women (egalitarianism).

Feminazi: an extreme or militant female. A word formed by the words ‘Feminism’ and 'Nazi' (1989).

Fix:  to arrange, contrive, or to dishonestly influence the outcome of some matter.

Forgery: The fraudulent making or altering a document to defraud another so that it becomes a false instrument. For an example, a wife forges her husband’s signature on a check drawn own her husband’s separate checking account. It the husband does not know about the transaction and his check is not honored, he can be charged with passing worthless checks or check kiting.

Fraud:  is an intentional deception made for personal gain or to damage another individual. In other words, the intent is fraudulent. However, the specific legal definition of fraud may vary by legal jurisdiction.

Fuzzy Logic:  A system of logic in which a statement can be true, false, or any of a continuum of values in between. (See Null Hypothesis)

Garnishment:  A garnishment is a process where money or goods held by a third party and are due to the defendant but the plaintiff attaches the amount to pay the debt. Example: John owes Paul money but John refuses to pay. So Paul asks the court to help him recover his loan from John, so the court orders John's bank to pay Paul to settle John’s debt.  The laws today require most people to have bank accounts. This allows employers to reduce their costs through direct deposit. That means that the employer simply deducts their worker’s child support payments and sends them to the appropriate agency before the employee receives their check. However, the employee is still responsible for any ‘missing’ child support payments.

Gender Preference (1): Once, children were a source of economic security and boys were valued more than girls because of their ability to earn and support their parents.

Gender Preference (2): When a man files for divorce, he must file papers first to protect his rights. However, court personnel can delay or his lose papers so that his wife has the advantage in court as the petitioner. The importance is that the petitioner controls proceedings while the respondent must answer the petitioner’s charges and without the petitioner, the proceedings cannot continue. This is another example of Catch-22.

Gullible: This word refers to someone easily duped or cheated. This word is also spelled 'gullable' but 'gullible' is the preferred spelling. The word ‘gullible’ is not in the dictionary.

Harassment: is any prosecution brought without proof. This is different from the standard of a reasonable expectation of obtaining a valid conviction based on the actual uncontested evidence. This means that if the evidence is there, it not contested and it is about the complaint then this prosecution would be valid. This means that a mere allegation is insufficient cause to proceed although it may benefit a protected or a particular class of complainants. So those persons who complain about sexual harassment without palpable proof may find themselves to be in the role of the perpetrator rather than the victim. This is where they should be because a false complaint is the proof.

Hematocolpos: Homatocolpos is a medical condition where the vagina fills with menstrual blood that has drained from the uterus.

Hematometria:  This a medical condition where the uterus fills with menstrual blood. A narrowing of the cervix causes this and this, in turn, may be a result of a surgical treatment. The important part is that a medical doctor should examine every female for an occluded hymen. If so, then the physician may puncture the hymen several times or remove the hymen to allow proper drainage. 

Hoax:  A hoax involves deception, with the intention to trick or dupe.  A hoax is something created by fabrication or fraud, such as a 'jackalope', a mythical animal of North American folklore.  However, rabbits infected with the "Shope papilloma virus" have growths and tumors that may resemble horns on their head and body.

Hush Money:  The payment, or bribe, is often called hush money. The meaning of the term, extortion, was originally limited to the collection of illegal fees by a public official. Today, such a crime is called bribery. If a private person does it, it is called blackmail. Both crimes are considered kinds of extortion, and they are punishable by a prison term or fine, or both.

Hypothecate: to pledge as security without delivery of title or possession. The most common example of hypothecation occurs when a person buys a house using a home loan and the home is used as collateral until the mortgage is paid in full. While the borrower retains ownership of the home, the creditor "hypothetically" has the right to take possession if the borrower defaults on the loan. (See pawn)

Hypothecation: the practice where a borrower pledges collateral to secure a debt while the borrower retains ownership of the collateral. (see pawn)

Identity Theft: This is the use of another individual's personal information such as their name, driver’s licence or identity card number, social security card, or other private information to steal another person’s identity. This allows the thief to assume the identity of the victim to gain access to their bank accounts and obtain credit cards. This allows the identity thief to purchase goods and services in the victim’s name and may be used by this person as an alias to engage in other illegal activity.  Identity theft is a common behavior in false allegations of abuse.

Immunity(1): Refers to right of exemption from duty or penalty. Judges, lawyers, and certain other people have immunity as dictated by law.  This means that these persons can do most anything they want in the courthouse and cannot be sued. However, in a jury trial and this fact can be disclosed to the jury. The court’s only recourse is to strike the disclosure from the record and admonish the jury to ignore the disclosure. That is much like the fellow in the Wizard of Oz who says ‘ignore that man behind the curtain’. Otherwise, the court must declare a mistrial and the whole process begins anew. There is no law that opposes the telling of the truth, some judges don't like to hear it, but there is a law about lying, especially by omission.

Immunity(2): Under the law, a person can sue another person, a partnership, corporation, or the government.  However, most government entities and specific persons are protected by immunity laws. The legal theory behind immunity is that those who have it cannot do their job without it. From my viewpoint, the only reason that a person would need immunity is that they plan to harm someone or break the law.

Immunity(3):  No Drop Policy - The prosecutor is the only person who decides whether to file criminal charges against a person he believes to have committed a crime. The reason that the purported victim has no choice in dropping or pressing charges is that crimes are acts against the state while torts are civil wrongs against a person. In other words, the purported victim has no choice in pressing criminal charges but they can sue the alleged perpetrator in civil court. The problem with this arrangement is, that by the time the prosecutor has tried the criminal case, the alleged perpetrator may not have any remaining resources that the victim may attach in civil suit. So the victim loses again.

This does not address the problem that the original report may be incomplete or false and this causes problems. According to one theory, the purported victim my change ‘her’ mind because she is scared of the abuse she will face after testifying. Another theory is that the victim doesn’t want to lose their partner’s or husband’s financial support. So the motivation for making the accusation is based on money and the acquisition of property. But the most plausible explanation for recanting an accusation is that purported victim is actually the abuser and the falsely accused, is the victim. But there is more. Once a prosecutor makes any statement relating to the facts, those statements are subject to the same rules as are other statements made by other witnesses. So a prosecutor’s ‘no drop policy’ and subsequent suppression of evidence are sufficient proof of their guilt.

The main reason that prosecutors follow the ‘no drop’ policy is that they do not want a reputation for being soft on crime. The other reason is that if they are wrong, they cannot be tried and sued in civil courts. Some people have mentioned the debacle that occurred in the O.J. Simpson trial and its prosecutorial problems. That is not quite true, it was a zoo and the fault can be laid at the feet of the prosecution and the presiding judge. Moreover, Marcia Clark was more interested in a book deal than the facts that two persons were murdered and the police were planting evidence. The jury was treated so badly, and the trial took so long, that no one should have been surprised by the verdict.

Infidelity: Although this term has its origins based on the lack of belief in a specific religion, it also pertains to unfaithfulness to a moral obligation. This is why those who are unfaithful to a belief or a set of principles are often known as disbelievers or infidels. The term, ‘infidelity’ is often used as a synonym for adultery or disloyalty.

Injunction, Permanent: A permanent injunction is issued at the completion of trial to do what was actively sought.

Injunction, Temporary: A temporary injunction is a court ordered restriction not to do something. It expires either at a particular time, the occurrence of a particular event, or the completion of a particular requirement either separately or inclusively.

Intimate Relationship:  An intimate partner is a person who has a close or long association with another and the term does not imply a sexual relationship. An example would be a long-standing friendship.  This means that no one can deduce that it has a sexual component. However, it does suggest (imply) a close personal relationship among friends, siblings, or a confidant.

Joint Tenancy: This is property that is owned by two or more persons having equal shares and interests simultaneously. This refers to unity of interest, possession, time, and title. This means that each joint tenant has an undivided right to possess the whole property and a proportionate right to equal ownership interest. So when one joint tenant dies, their interest is automatically given to the surviving joint tenant or tenants. Some states do not allow this form of ownership and one obvious reason is that it may invite abuse.

Junta: a committee who controls a government especially after a seizure of power. The Spanish form can be also translated as either ‘union’ or ‘yoke’.

Larceny: Larceny is a synonym for theft.

Left Wing: The left side of a chamber or structure or a person who is seated on the left side. The port side looking forward. A Liberal.

Levels of Evidence: I have checked some sources and here are the levels of innocence, whatever that might be. (1) The preponderance of evidence is the general standard of proof in civil cases. (2) Clear and convincing evidence is that standard of evidence that lies beyond the preponderance of evidence but below reasonable doubt. (3) Reasonable doubt is level of certainty required before a juror can determine the legal validity of a defendant’s guilt. (4) Beyond reasonable doubt is the standard of evidence required to validate a criminal conviction in most adversarial legal systems. (5) Actual innocence is the absolute certainty of innocence but many courts do not support this concept although it exists.

Libel: Libel is the publication of any false, defamatory statement that misrepresents, defames, or damages another person’s reputation. Libel is a written utterance and slander is oral.

Lie of Omission: A lie of omission is the concealment or the withholding of a material fact that would or could change the outcome of a trial. For an example, a woman accuses her husband of abuse to hide the fact that she has stolen property from him. The most common lies of omission before DNA testing, were false allegations of paternity. In some areas, the number of false allegations of paternity exceeds 30 percent of those men tested.

Litigant:  Any person or party who is actively involved in a lawsuit either criminal, civil, or family law.

Malice Aforethought: A prior intent to commit a crime, especially murder. This term is not strictly synonymous with premeditation.

Male Exclusion: An absolutist woman’s movement that professes that men are the bondable property of women and that only women have the right to own property. So one way insuring this is that many women will falsely claim abuse simply to deprive their husband of his earnings and his possessions. This would insure that only women and the government would own property and men would be servants without holdings.

Male Privilege: Women have been always writing about men and male privilege. The problem was that most men never heard about male privilege nor ever had it. Nevertheless, these women would claim that it existed and that may have been true.  The problem is that these women had embellished their claims when they could have told the truth.

Material Alteration:  Any alteration of a document that changes its legal effect so that it changes the interests, rights, and obligations of the parties to the document. For an example, a court order might state that Jill must pay Pete $10,000. However, someone alters the document to state that Pete must pay Jill $10,000. This would be a forgery and a material alteration.

Matriarchy: A Matriarchy is a state, family, or group headed and governed by a matriarch (female). It is a system where decent and inheritance are traced through the female line.  Most matriarchies tend to be consensual except in matters of caste, then their power is tyrannical and absolute.

Misandrification: the process of displacing men from society and the protection of the law.  (The Abused Men's Area - July 17, 2012).

Munchausen:  The family name is spelled ‘Munchhausen’ and not ‘Munchausen’ but most people use the latter spelling.

Namby-pamby: inane, insipid or lacking in conviction, courage, or strength.

Nazism: a collection of political and economic doctrines that originated after the first World War and put into effect after the fall of the Weimar Republic in 1933. Nazism embraces the so-called dominance of racially superior Germanic groups such as the fictitious European Aryans.  The real Aryans are Indo-Iranian (India and Iran) and not necessarily Indo-European because the Persian Empire extended into India and the Persians call their language Aryan (and the native name for it is Farsi).

NIMBY is an initialism for 'Not In My Back Yard'.  It is a term used by those who have bought a home in a desirable area and then oppose further growth. It was also used against undesirable practices such as building homes on toxic waste dumps (Love Canal) or building a nuclear power plant nearby (Three Mile Island).

Not Invented Here (NIH) - This term describes a process where the ‘inventor’ proves their egoism by reframing an older term in a new paradigm. An example would be this definition. I worked on a project many years ago (1973) that was to replace a system that worked very well. Some local ‘experts’ thought that they could do better by relabeling the names of subroutines (a common set of code used by programs). So they decided to place descriptive prefixes that would describe the general definition of the code. The problem was that the compiler only allowed eight characters for identification. So instead of naming program elements that others could easily understand, they created a ‘Tower of Babel’. Some people live to change things so that they can leave their mark as historic proof that they existed - it is a form of graffiti. As a side note, the ‘the programmer would identify the Tower of Babel’ as ‘PRTOB’ where ‘PR’ would identify a procedure whose name was ‘TOB’.

NOW  - An initialism for the National Organization for Women. This organization is an elite women’s group that seeks to exercise power and influence over others and does not represent most women. It is a collection of elitists and liars.

Null Hypothesis is a statistical hypothesis being tested and accepted or rejected in favor of an alternative. For an example, the difference between two samples is due to chance alone and not anything else. The point is we can never prove the null hypothesis and the data set can only reject the null hypothesis or fail to reject the null hypothesis. (see Fuzzy Logic)

Officialism: An excessive adherence to purported regulations and specious claims by government officials.

Old Testament: According to tradition, King Solomon wrote it. Some scholars believe that the book's assortment of moral and religious sayings, poems, and warnings come from various periods in the history of ancient Israel. Many believe that others had written them before the birth of Solomon. They were probably not collected in their present form until after the period of the Babylonian Exile, which ended in 538 B.C. The notion of angry and brawling women appears in Proverbs Chapter 21. In an earlier writing, Genesis, Chapter 39 illustrates a woman's complicity who wrongfully blames a man for something that never occurred.

Opponent: Any person who opposes an accusation of civil or criminal wrong doing as do the terms ‘defendant’ and ‘respondent’ do. This is not a traditional term but a person can insist that the accuser must use it when they do not use ‘Adversary’. The reason is that ‘defendant’ and ‘respondent’ infer guilt and that is why no one should use them. Opponent is not used in contemporary law but a person can insist on it before the hearing begins. Moreover, a male litigant may oppose the use of pejorative male pronouns such as ‘he’ or ‘him’ in any utterance that is likely to defame without absolute proof of guilt before the proceeding begins and then is completed.

Palimony is an award of support made to a partner in a dissolved nonmarital relationship. It is similar to alimony except that the partners were not married.  No formal contract has to exist and a court may determine whether the conduct of the parties warrants a finding of an implied contract or tacit understanding to support the award.

Paramour:  An illicit lover.

Paraphilia: a pattern of recurring sexually arousing mental imagery or behavior that involves unusual and especially socially unacceptable sexual practices (pedophilia, paraphilia, sadism).

Paternity Fraud:  Paternity fraud is an intentional lie to induce a man to surrender a legal right or to force him to support a child who is not his own. This is usually accomplished through deception, a legal or illegal presumption, or by a fraud in the chain of custody. However, the most common source of paternity fraud is the legal presumption that every child born in a marriage is that of the husband and his wife. On very rare occasions, children have been switched, in a hospital, and the parents learn about this later but this is not necessarily fraud. However, it could involve kidnapping, by another person, under certain circumstances where paternity is not an issue but maternity is. (I Kings 3:16-27).

Patriarchs - Abraham was the ancestor of both the Arabs and the Jews. The Arabs trace their ancestry to Abraham's oldest son, Ishmael but the Jews consider Abraham their ancestor through another son, Isaac. So Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Isaac’s son) are called the patriarchs, the founding fathers, of the Jews. This comes from the account of Hagar and Ishmael in the desert.

Pawn: something delivered to or deposited as security for a loan. (see hypothecate).  A person who is used to further the purposes of another.

Payola: In 1950's, federal investigators revealed that the shows, Queen for a Day, The $64,000 Question and Twenty-one were rigged to produce higher ratings for their sponsors. The term has its origins in the 1930's when record companies, to increase sales, paid radio stations to play their records.  In certain courts, payola is simply explained this way. A favorable decision costs, how favorably do you want it to be?

Perjury: The elements of fraud and making false statements under oath.  I would not be writing this essay if it were not that perjury was so rampant in our legal system. The reason that this is true is that the definition of perjury is different from lying. Lying is simply not telling the truth. So perjury is lying when that person had promised not to do it. So a factual prevarication occurs when a person avoids giving a direct answer to a question. The difference between perjury and material alteration is this. Perjury substitutes a lie for the truth while an alteration changes the effect of a writing or a statement.

Personal Debt: Every debt that a person incurs themselves or alone.

Personal Gain:  Profiteering at the expense of others.

Pettifogger: A lawyer, judge, or politician whose methods are petty, despicable, disreputable, underhanded, or unscrupulous.

Plaintiff:  A plaintiff or petitioner is any person that first accuses or makes a claim against another person or entity in a civil or a family law court.

Plethysmograph:  There are two types of the penile plethysmographs.  In one kind, a volumetric air chamber measures air displaced by the subject’s penis when the test subject is erotica.  In the other kind, a circumferential transducer uses a liquid (in a rubber ring strain) gauge that measures changes in the circumference of the subject’s penis. 

Plethysmography: measures a male’s penile response to erotic pictures and other stimuli. So this test is invalid because it creates an environment that is designed to produce an involuntary sexual response. That's why the results from this test are usually not admissible in court. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (Forth Edition) of the American Psychiatric Association stated that penile Plethysmography was used to measure a male’s response to visual and auditory stimuli.  But the reliability and validity of this procedure in clinical assessment have not been well established, and clinical experience suggests that subjects can simulate the response by manipulating mental images [quoted]. In other words, the patients were able to control the test.

Pogrom:  An organized massacre of an ethnic or religious group.

Polyandry: The illegal practice of simultaneously having more than one husband or male mate.

Polygamy: The criminal offense of marriage in which a spouse of either gender has more than one mate of either gender simultaneously.

Polygyny: The illegal practice of simultaneously having more than one wife or female mate.

Precision:  Precision refers to a degree of refinement that is usually represented by the number of digits in a term.  Precision does not necessarily imply correctness or accuracy.  However precision can reflect reproducibility, the quality of producing the same object within an acceptable range of tolerance. For an example, a nut and a bolt must be precisely manufactured to the same measure or they will not fit together. This is also true of all of the other nut and bolts of the same measurement that would be used in a project. Otherwise, those fasteners would be useless.

Premeditation: The consideration or the planning of an act before it is committed. A wife has stolen her husband’s property. She contacts the police and they tell her to type a phoney power of attorney and apply makeup to fake an injury. So she is the theft and the police are the accomplices and these acts are a result of premeditation on their part.

Preponderance: The superiority in number, weight, power, importance, or strength. It can be a simple majority of one.

Preponderance: The common evidence standard for domestic violence restraining orders is "preponderance of the evidence," often conceptualized as a mere 51/49% likelihood of guilt. However, this is not always true. A preponderance simply means a superiority in number. However, this notion is deceptive because if he says he didn’t and she says he did, there is no superiority in number. If all factors are equal, a preponderance cannot exist (50/50%). So only an outside influence that prefers one outcome rather than the other can change the balance of evidence and that influence is corrupt. One example is the mandatory requirement to arrest a man on the mere word of a woman who has just lied. 

The mandatory arrest doctrine ignores the likelihood that a person who has remained law-abiding would not change while a person who has brought false allegations against their husband or partner did. So all anyone had to do is to determine what she or he would or had gained to have to falsely accuse their spouse or partner. So the accuser is actually a guilty person who has something to hide.

Probable Cause (1): When someone says that something is probably true that means that their evidence is strong enough to establish what they say is true, without proof that it is actually is true. For an example, if someone notices a pool of oil under a car, they might leave a note on the windshield that tells the owner that there is a pool of oil under the car. However, that doesn’t mean that the car has an oil leak but it’s good to know that somebody cared.

Probable Cause (2): Probable cause is the required element for arrest that is based on the circumstances that are sufficient to support the belief that a crime has been committed without additional evidence. So the increase in the instances of false allegations, lowers any standard that includes or depends on probable cause as a required element of arrest. The burden of proof must lay with the accuser and not with the accused.

Psychological denial is actually the complete refutation of the reality of a fact that is inconsistent with one’s belief.

Psychological minimization is the process of recognizing or admitting the fact but denying its seriousness. For an example one may admit that some men are abused by their wives but their numbers are so small that they are not important to the ‘big picture’. 

Psychological projection admits both denial and understatement but denies responsibility. So it is a defense mechanism where individuals attribute their own unacceptable behaviors and thoughts to others. So in this way, projection reduces anxiety by allowing the expression of the subconscious impulses or desires without letting the conscious mind recognize them. This is called willful misattribution: The externalization of blame, guilt, or responsibility. So in a sense, projection is related to minimization and then denial. Friedrich Nietzsche expressed it this way: When you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes unto you. However, the best way to illustrate psychological projection is by example. Mary abuses Bob but Mary claims that Bob abuses her. (See Miscellaneous)

Rape: Rape is any sexual activity committed through lack of consent, force, threat, or by the victim’s inability to consent or resist. Some laws also define rape as sexual battery to distinguish that act from sexual assault (an attempt to commit rape). Marriage does not confer any special right on a husband or a wife to force their spouse to submit to sexual activity. Moreover, this definition does not require penetration to commit the offense.

Rape: Rape is any non-consensual penetration regardless of gender (New FBI definition, found May 7, 2012).

Rape: Sexual Assault is an attempt to commit a sexual act upon or with a person without their consent or on a person who cannot consent. Sexual Battery is the commission of a sexual act upon or with a person without their consent or on a person who cannot consent. Rape (sexual battery) does not require penetration or emission to complete the offence. (My Definition)

Rape (Victimization):  Some women’s groups have asserted that a female ‘victim’ is the sole person who can say that her claim of rape is false but this is counterintuitive to ‘her’ concept of victimization. So what woman would admit to a false allegation that gives her gratification and illegitimate legal power over her victim(s)? It’s called sadism.

Rape Shield Laws:  See shield laws.

Rape Statistics (false):  According to the ‘Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network (RAINN), one in six women in America has been a victim of rape or attempted rape (16.66%). Even more alarming, more than half of all rapes have been reported to the proper authorities with only a 50.8 percent chance of arrest. This means that 15 of every 16 rapists (93.74%) go free. This also means that false allegations of rape are much harder to refute because some women lie, the courts don’t care, and the evidence is not there. This is why women who lie about rape or abuse should be treated as sex offenders and registered as such.

Razzle Dazzle 42: The original usage of ‘Razzle Dazzle’ was that it was a complex maneuver, designed to confuse an opponent. When I gave more thought about this word, others have used 'razzle-dazzle' to divert attention from the real issues.  The primary issue was lying.

Red Feminist:  Some authors use the term 'Redfem' to describe a person who embraces the communist social and political philosophy of Mao Zedong that he described in his pocket-sized ‘Little Red Book’.

Refusal to Appear or Deliberate Delay:  Refusal to appear, malingering or other deliberate delay by a party or the court is a sign of guilt and complicity. It only takes a few minutes to adjudicate a case when an litigant refuses to appear. Any other delay is a result of prejudice by court especially if the remaining party was falsely accused by the complainant to avoid discovery and disclosure of their unlawful activity.

Refusal to Appear or other Malfeasance: This also includes any false accusation of wrongdoing or malfeasance by a public official. So failure to appear without good cause is a sign of their guilt and their complaint must be considered a ruse. So any order of protection for the benefit of this litigant must cease to exist and this litigant must cover all costs and damages that resulted from its bad faith litigation.

Respondent or Defendant: any a person or party who has been accused of a crime or answers a Pleading. The term, ‘Adversary’ does not imply guilt but I prefer ‘Opponent’ because the term is accurate and does not imply guilt as does ‘defendant’ or ‘respondent’.

Restraining order: is a legal document, granted without notice or hearing to the other party, that demands the preservation of the existing state of affairs until a proper hearing is held.  It is supposed to preserve the status quo (the current state of things) until a hearing can be held to determine the propriety of injunctive relief. However, this ‘legal ‘ definition is contradictory because the actual victim wants the abuse and harmful activity to stop.  By definition, all restraining orders are temporary and that is why they are called a ‘T.R.O.’ or a temporary restraining order.

Right Wing: The right side of a chamber or structure or a person who is seated on the right side. The starboard side looking forward. A Conservative.

Rule of Thumb: Some commentators maintain that the rule-of-thumb is the diameter of a rod that men use to beat a woman. Actually, the rule-of-thumb is a method or procedure based on experience and common sense. It is something that is roughly correct and not intended to be accurate. It is a guess. That's why most people will try on shoes and clothing to see if they fit before they buy it.  Their reason comes from common sense and experience.

Sadism: Sadism is a sexual perversion in which gratification is obtained by the infliction of physical or mental pain on others. It is equivalent to making false of allegations for sexual gratification. It is a delight in cruelty. So when a woman falsely claims rape or abuse, she may be doing it to satisfy her debased sexual cravings (debauchery).

Separate Debt: Every debt that a person incurs alone no matter their marital status and it may include a public declaration usually expressed as "I am responsible for only those debts which are solely my own." or "I am not responsible for any debts that are not my own."

Separate Property: Separate property is everything that a person owns separately. Separate property does not have to be divided between the spouses. Separate property includes anything owned, inherited, earned, or received before marriage or after the date of separation.  Separate property may also include anything that one spouse receives as a gift. It the gift has substantial value, such as jewelry, a car, or real estate then the gift should be recorded for estate and income tax purposes. In certain cases, separate property can become mixed with community property so it is important to document the payments and source of the money.

Sexual Assault: Sexual Assault is the attempt to commit a sexual act upon or with a person without their consent or on a person who cannot consent.

Sexual Battery: Sexual Battery is the commission of a sexual act upon or with a person who cannot or does not consent. Marriage and other relationships do not signify or presuppose consent by one party or the other. This consent must be overt and unmistakable each time.

Sexual Harassment: The uninvited and unwelcome verbal or physical behavior of a sexual nature especially by a person in authority. However, anyone can be subject to threats and false allegations about any matter. False allegations of abuse or rape can be viewed as sexual harassment because they are motivated by malice or discrimination even in same sex relationships.

Shield Laws:  The courts held that evidence of a female victim's prior false allegations of abuse or rape, are not admissible because they amount to sexual conduct. This ruling amounts to an acknowledgment of her guilt. Although she might be facing criminal charges of sexual child abuse, her sexual history as a liar and a sex offender is not admissible. So there is one standard for men and there is another for women. This double standard can destroy any person’s reputation although there is no conviction.  This stigma can follow the falsely accused for the rest of their life while perpetrator goes free.

Shyster: An unscrupulous person in the practice of law or in politics.

Sissy:  A timid or cowardly person.

Silver Bullet: - A metaphor that refers to any simple effective solution. 

Slander: Slander is the utterance of any false, defamatory statement that misrepresents, defames, or damages another person’s reputation. Slander is an oral utterance and libel is a written utterance.

Small claims court: any court that has limited jurisdiction and is used to try claims of $1,000 or less. Lawyers are not allowed to represent anyone but themselves in a small claims court. However, they can act as judges in these proceedings. The limit may be different from this in other jurisdictions.  For an example, the previous limit was $1000. The limit is now $7,500 in California but the limit in other jurisdictions may exceed $25,000 (as of 2011). So the term ‘small claims court’ is now a misnomer for many of us.

Sole Ownership: This is property owned entirely by one person. So the words in the deed such as "Jane, a single woman" or "John, a single man" establishes their title as the sole owner.

Stockholm Syndrome:  It is the psychological tendency of a hostage to bond or identify with or sympathize with their captor. This syndrome was first coined in1973 and then entered our common language in 1978.

Spectrophotometer:  a device that measures the relative intensities of the light and heat in different parts of the infrared and visible spectrum. These laboratory instruments can also show the pattern of the rays when they are reflected from an object. This allows a forensic scientist to detect forgeries or illegal erasures on documents by comparing the pattern of rays in and from the ink or other media such as the paper or an impressed watermark.

Spousal Abuse:  Spousal abuse is the abuse of a husband or a wife.  Domestic violence is the abuse of any other family or household member.

Spousal Support: The common understanding of a spousal support award is that it is a relatively strict economic analysis based on incomes but that is not always true.  However, spousal support is taxable income to the recipient and a deduction for the payer. However, the problem is that spousal support is not terminable based on cohabitation although the adulterous conduct occurred during the marriage. So a person could be forced to support their former spouse and their spouse’s adulterous partner. (see Palimony)

Standards of Proof: The preponderance of evidence is the general standard of proof in civil cases. Clear and Convincing evidence lies beyond the preponderance but below reasonable doubt. Reasonable doubt is level of certainty required before a juror can determine the legal validity of a defendant’s guilt. Beyond reasonable doubt is the standard of evidence required to validate a criminal conviction in most adversarial legal systems. Actual innocence is the absolute certainty of innocence but many courts do not support this concept although it does exist.

Surrogate Spousal Abuse: a practice where another assumes, or substitutes themselves, in the role of the abuser. These people could be a police officer, judge, lawyer, or any other individual who takes advantage of a victim of spousal abuse for personal gain. For an example, a bank employee may illegally reassign a victim’s savings account to his wife or surreptitiously add her name to his separate credit and bank accounts. (see Identity Theft)

Swan off:  Leave somewhere in a defiant or pompous manner.  Example: He did not like the way they spoke to him so he swanned off angrily. (British)

Swindle: large-scale fraud by misrepresentation or abuse of confidence by con-artists (those who falsely claim spousal abuse or domestic violence) to get something by dishonesty or deception.

Syndrome: A group of signs and symptoms that occur together and characterize a particular abnormality or condition. For an example, the Stockholm syndrome refers the tendency of a hostage to bond with, identify with, or sympathize their captor. Battered child syndrome refers to the type and kind of physical and mental injuries that are sustained by a grossly abused child.

A syndrome is also a disease is a condition in a living animal or plant that impairs its normal function and is evident by distinguishing signs and symptoms. For an example, mumps is caused by a virus that causes fever and the swelling of the parotid gland. The parotid gland produces saliva and is located on each side of the face in front and below the ear.

Chicken pox is a short term contagious viral disease, caused by herpesvirus-3, that occurs mostly in children. Its typical symptoms are low-grade fever and the formation of pustules. Shingles is an acute viral inflammation of the sensory ganglia of spinal and cranial nerves associated with a vesicular eruption and neuralgic pains and is caused by reactivation of herpesvirus-3 that caused chicken pox. This condition is also known as herpes zoster.

So a syndrome is a group of signs and symptoms that occur together and characterize a particular abnormality or condition. A syndrome is also a set of concurrent things that usually form an identifiable pattern. So how does a syndrome become a disorder?

A syndrome does not become a disorder by some magical process. The decision is based upon the major symptoms, the indicators that are essential to the diagnosis, and the minor findings that may or may not be present. So a formal description may specify the minimum number of major and minor findings required for the diagnosis. This means that those persons exhibiting a particular syndrome have symptoms and behaviors that occur more frequently than those that would be expected by chance.

Tenancy by The Entirety: This is a special form of joint tenancy where the tenants are married to each other as husband and wife with each spouse owning one-half interest in the property. This means that neither spouse can sell this kind of property without the consent of the other. When the words say "John and Mary, husband and wife as tenancy in the entirety" this establishes title in Tenancy by the Entirety.

Tenants in Common: This is property owned by two or more persons simultaneously but they do not necessarily have equal shares. Instead, they have proportionate interests and right to possess and enjoy the property as do the other tenants in common. Upon the death of a tenant in common, the decedent' s interest passes to their heirs named in the will so that the heirs become new tenants in common with the surviving tenants in common. So the words in a deed, for an example "Charles, Douglas, and Ester, tenants in common" establishes their rights as tenants in common.

Testilying: This is a composite word for the practice of police giving false evidence against a defendant in a criminal trial. According to other sources, lying is so widespread that judges and juries have deplored this practice but are unable to stop it because prosecutors support it. The problem is that prosecutors have legal immunity against prosecution and that prevents most anyone from stopping this practice.

Testimony: A firsthand authentication of a fact or a declaration by a witness under an oath.

That:  That is the singular of those.

Theft: The taking of the personal property of another their permission. The intent to deprive the owner of the property and convert to the use of the taker or another person other than the legal owner.  False claims of abuse are often used to deprive the owner of his or her property.

These:  These are the plural of this.

This:  This is the singular of these.

Those:  Those are the plural of that.

Unfounded: The word ‘unfounded’ is not synonymous with ‘a false allegation’. A false allegation means that was sufficient evidence to prove that it was false. In contrast, unfounded claims are those clams that have no basis in fact (the absence of evidence).

Utterance: An oral or written statement.

Victim:  A victim is any person who does not have equality and equal protection; any person who has been subjected to hardship, maltreatment, or other oppression because of their gender or gender preference; any person who is frequently subjected to political or unlawful attacks by the courts; any person who is or has been tricked or duped.

Vexatious litigation: is a legal action brought without merit, to harass, subjugate, or control another person. Making a false or petty charge is an abuse of the judicial system and could result in the imposition of legal sanctions against the offender. In practice, female offenders are almost never charged. It’s an unwritten law.

Watermark: a marking on paper produced by a mold or processing roll that is visible when the paper is held of to a light.  An impressed marking used to prove the authenticity of a paper document (often used with a special seal).  A marking on a line or vertical surface that shows the high water mark or the height of depth of water at that point.

Zygote: a cell formed by the union of two gametes.

Disclaimer

This glossary is not intended to give legal advice but is intended to provide definitions to words that might not be used in ordinary conversation. Please contact a lawyer for advice on legal matters.

Edward Steven Nunes

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