Legal abbreviations typically can be found in anything from a book to court documents. It is very important to have a common set of abbreviations because it lets everyone who reads a legal document understand what is presented in writing without having to identify terms that are repeatedly used. It is a surprising fact how many very standard abbreviations have actually legal foundations.
Legal Abbreviations List for Court Documents
Both inside and outside of the courtroom, there are literally thousands of legal abbreviations, used on a variety of occasions. Below you will find a listing of some of the more common abbreviations and symbols you may encounter in legal documents. Some of these are more commonly seen only by those who work within the legal field, while others may already be familiar to you.
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Codes, Laws, and Organization Abbreviations
Lots of abbreviations are found in legal documents for legal codes. They will cite criminal charges and also see legal documents and laws, such as the Constitution or the First Amendment. As these legal abbreviations relate to legal codes, laws, and organizations try to clarify your understanding and refer to these abbreviations for court documents.
1) 1A – First Amendment
2) ads. – ad sectam [Latin], like v. in cases, except the defendant is listed first [for example Wade ads. Roe]
3) ABA – American Bar Association
4) BR or B/R – Bankruptcy
5) A.L.R [2d, 3d, 4th, 5th, 6th] – American Law Reports [when followed by the number it represents in the series or edition]
6) CFR – Call for Response or Code of Federal Regulations
7) CNeg – Contributory Negligence
8) CL – Common Law
9) Cs or Cx – Constitution
10) NDA – Non-Disclosure Agreement
11) IRC – Internal Revenue Code
12) R.E. or R/E – Real Estate
13) PL or Pub.L. – Public Law
14) USC – United States Code
15) SOL – Statute of Limitations
16) WTO – World Trade Organization
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Abbreviations of Legal Term
You will commonly find other general legal terms in legal documents In addition to laws and codes. These contain words such as “counterclaim” and “class action.” Manage your legal documents by knowing the abbreviations used here.
1) art – Article
2) ATS – At the suit of
3) anor – Another
4) b/c – Because
5) CA – Class action
6) CB – Casebook
7) c. – Chapter
8) CE – Collateral estoppel
9) c/a – Complaint
10) Cx-C – Cross-claim
11) C-C – Counterclaim
12) DBA – Doing business as
13) Et al. – And others [Latin]
14) F.App’x – Federal appendix
15) HDC – Holder in due course
16) ISLN – International standards lawyer number
17) Jx – Jurisdiction
18) JNOV – Judgment notwithstanding verdict
19) K – Contract
20) L/C – Letter of credit
21) MOU – Memorandum of understanding
22) No. – Number
23) n/k/a – Now known as
24) Ors – Others
25) Pet. – Petition
26) P – Page
27) Pp. – Pages
28) Relv. – Relevant
29) SI – Statutory instruments
30) s. – Section
31) S/J – Summary judgment
32) sd – Said
33) v. – Versus
34) XXN – Cross-examination
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Abbreviations of People and Court
In legal documents, even people and court systems get abbreviated. It is just more comfortable to have everything in shorthand, particularly for the stenographer. So, if you are the “employer“ or “employee” review people and court term abbreviations.
1) atty – Attorney
2) BFP – Bona fide purchaser
3) DOA – Court of Appeals
4) ER – Employer
5) EE – Employee
6) GC – General counsel
7) JJ – Judges or Justices
8) J – Judge or Justice
9) LLP – Limited liability partnership
10) LLC – Limited liability company
11) Pl. – Plaintiff
12) Pet’r – Petitioner
13) Pls. – Plaintiffs
14) XN – Examination in chief
Determining Legal Abbreviations
There are resources open to help people identify the meaning of various legal abbreviations. One of such extensive databases of abbreviations and acronyms that are commonly used in the government is GovSpeak.
Other very popular sources for legal abbreviations include The Bluebook, the very popular legal citation guide, assembled by the professionals at the Yale Law Journal, Harvard Law Review, University of Pennsylvania Law Review, and Columbia Law Review.
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