1001 Legal Words You Need to Know: The Ultimate Guide to the Language of the Law

Description

1001 Legal Words You Need to Know explains and illuminates the most difficult and arcane vocabulary any American has to deal with--that of the law. This comprehensive-- but never condescending--guide to the language of the American legal system carefully defines and explains every term, and many entries have supplementary notes and a sample sentence. These notes include information about grammar associated with certain terms, as well as an etymology section usefulin finding the linguistic origins of each term. American and British spellings are differentiated (license vs. licence), as are singular and plural forms (dictum vs. dicta). In addition, the book includes a number of quick mini-guides to legal troubleshooting that include information on understanding wills, trusts, and inheritance, granting someone a power of attorney, understanding contracts, what to do if you're sued, how to choose a lawyer, exploring law school, and enjoying cop and lawyer dramas. The backmatter contains an extensive list of legal aid organizations and a helpful bibliography of books about the law and lawyers for further reading. Written for everyday people who only want to know "the basics," 1001 Legal Words You Need To Know is the perfect size and scope for anyone trying to see through the jargon of the American legal system.

Reviews

Rating: 1 / 5
Date: 2009-07-03
Summary: "Glad I didn't spend much on this book!"

What is so 'Ultimate' about this book??? And how it's a 'guide' I'll never know. It just guides me to needing another book! I'm studying to be a paralegal, and after going online to check out some good books to have on hand in my library, and to make my studying easier and resourceful, this one had some good reviews so I got it (for next to nothing, maybe less than $3...). Well thank goodness that's all I paid, cause in my opinion, this book has been worthless from day one. This one - and another one I thought would be good - "Barrons Law Dictionary" (the little cute black, thick paperback, which also had some good reviews). Even though Barron's is Copyrighted 1996, still.....they both fall WAY SHORT in delivering the goods. The "1001 Legal Words" is Copyrighted 2003! Granted, Barron's DOES contain more, much more, but still is missing A LOT of common legal terms. I'ts just annoying, and you go online to check out reviews hoping that will guide you in the right direction. Well, not in this case. Definately not for this book!

I don't know how it got any good reviews; just some simple legal words literally were not there. For example, today I looked up "requisition" - Not There! I looked up "Limited Liability" - Not There! Another one: "Uniform Commercial Code [UCC]" - again, NOT THERE! The list just goes on and on. I started looking up lots of diff. words, just for the fun of it, to see what was in there, and I could not BELIEVE the lack thereof. Man....... don't get this book; it's a literal waste of money (no matter what you paid) and time - the time spent looking up legal words that just are not going to be there!