Civil Definitions

Affiant: The person that swears to an affidavit or a statement.

Affidavit: A written statement made under oath.

Attachment: A proceedure which may be used to bring a person or property into the custody of the court.

Bond: A written instrument binding the parties to pay a sum fixed as a penality, conditioned, however, that the payment of the penalty may be avoided by the performance of certain acts.

Capias: A writ issued to an officer commanding that a specific person be taken into custody and brought before the court immediately or at a specific time and place.

Capias Pro Fine: A writ issued to a peace officer requiring the officer to place the defenant in custody until such time as the defendant pays the fine and court cost owed or serves out the fine.

Citation: An official notice from a court issued to a defendant after a plaintiff’s petition is filed; the citation commands the defendant to answer and appear in court at a specific time.

Civil Law: That branch of law which deals with enforcement or protection of private rights and the prevention or redress of private wrongs.

Commitment: The warrant by which a court of magistrate directs an officer to take a person to jail or otherwise commit him into custody.

Complaint: An affidavit or sworn statement made before the court which charges the commission of an offense within the jurisdiction of the court.

Criminal Law: That branch of law that deals with crimes (public wrongs) and their punishments.

Default Judgement: A judgement entered upon the failure of a party to plead or appear at the appointed time.

Defendant: A party in a civil suit; namely, the party against whom a court action is initiated.

Detainer: The act of withholding from a person lawfully entitled to the possession of land or goods; the restraint of a man’s personal liberty against his will.

Diligence: Persistent activity, prudence or care; “due diligence” is that which is properly expected from a reasonable and prudent man underthe particular circumstances.

Eviction: The processing of removing a person from the premises to which the individual no longer has a right of possession.

Execution: A writ issued by a court to enforce the collection of a judgement won in a civil suit. The process of collecting money on a judgement by the seizure and sale of non-exempt property.

Exempt: Property specified by statute which may not be seized nor sold to satisfy an execution or attachment.

Forcible Detainer: Where one originally in rightful possession of realty refuses to surrender it at termination of his possessory right.

Forcible Entry: An entry occuring without the concent of the rightful owner.

Forcible Enrty and Detainer: A court proceeding brought by a landlord to regain possession of their rental property after someone has entered and occupied the premises without consent.

Injunction: A writ issued by a court which demands or prohibits specified actions.

Judgement: The final order of a court in a civil suit which settles a disputed issued, determines the rights of the parties with regard to the subject matter of the suit, and which is subject to being enforced by execution.

Jurisdiction: The power of the court to lawfully act with regard to persons and property.

Levy: Taking property into custody under authority of a writ issued by a court of competent jurisdiction.

Magistrate: Any judge of the Supreme Court, Court of Criminal Appeals, or District Court; any county judge, judge of a county court at law, justice of the peace, or mayor; or any recorder or judge of city courts of incorporated cities or towns.

Petition: A document filed by the plaintiff with the clerk of the court which outlines the basis of the complaint against the defendant and the relief being sought from the court.

Plaintiff: A party in a civil suit; namely, the one who starts the suit by filing a petition.

Process: All writs and official documents issued by the courts in connection with pending suits.

Redress: Satisfaction for an injury or damages sustained.

Subpoena: A process to cause a witness to appear and give testimony, commanding him to appear at a specified place, at a specified time to testify for the party named within.

Subpoena Duces Tecum: A subpoena that directs a witness to bring with him or her and produce at that time any instrument of writing or other thing desired as evidence.

Summons: An order to appear in court issued to a defendant by the court itself.

Writ of Attachment: A writ employed to enforce obedience to an order or judgement of the court, such as attachment a disobedient party and having him brought before the court.

Writ of Execution: A writ to put in force the judgment of a court authorizing an officer to levy on and to sell certain items of judgment debtor to satisfy judgment.

Writ of Garnishment: A writ directed to one who has money or property in his possession belonging to the defendant, ordering such third person not to deliver or pay it to the defendant but to deliver or hold it for the plaintiff.

Writ of Habeas Corpus: A writ which orders that a person be brought before the court in order to test the legality of his detention by the person to whom the writ is directed.

Writ of Mandamus: A summary writ issued from a court of competent jurisdiction to command performance of a specific duty which the relator is entitled to have performed.

Writ of Possession: The writ of execution employed to enforce a judgment to recover possession of real or personal property. It commands the officer to enter the land and give possession of it to the person entitled under the judgment.

Writ of Sequestration: The temporary seizure or setting aside of specific property to which a party to suit claims ownership. The object of the writ is to protect the property of the suit from being destroyed, lost or removed from the county.