judicial proceedings
n. any action by a judge re: trials, hearings, petitions or other matters formally before the court. See also: judicial.

judicial sale
n. a sale of goods by an official (keeper, trustee or sheriff) appointed by the court and ordered by a court, usually to satisfy a judgment or implement another order of the court. Such sales require public notice of time, place and a description of ...

jump bail
v. to fail to appear for a court appearance after depositing (posting) bail with the intention of avoiding prosecution, sentencing or going to jail. Posting bail guarantees that the accused person will give up the money if he/she does not show up in ...

jurat
(jur-at) n. Latin for "been sworn," the portion of an affidavit in which a person has sworn that the contents of his/her written statement are true, filled in by the notary public with the date, name of the person swearing,

Juris Doctor
(J.D.) n. the law degree granted upon graduation by many university law schools with accepted high standards of admission and grading. This often supersedes the Bachelor of Laws in recognition that the law curriculum entitles a person to a graduate d ...

jurisdiction
n. the authority given by law to a court to try cases and rule on legal matters within a particular geographic area and/or over certain types of legal cases. It is vital to determine before a lawsuit is filed which court has jurisdiction.

jurisdictional amount
n. the range between the minimum and maximum amount of money or value in dispute in a lawsuit (generally based on the amount demanded in the lawsuit), which determines which court has jurisdiction to try the case.