🔤 Glossary
The vocabulary of a legal situation, in plain language, cited to the statute wherever one defines the term. Terms appear as hover cards across the site's calculators too.
Assessed value
The value a county places on a property for tax purposes, which is not necessarily what it would sell for.
Assessment ratio
The published fraction of market value at which a jurisdiction assesses property.
Comparable sales
Recent sales of similar nearby properties — the evidence an assessment appeal is usually built on.
Comparative negligence
The rule that reduces an injury recovery by the injured person's own share of fault — and, in many states, bars it entirely past a threshold.
Contributory negligence
The older rule, still followed in five US jurisdictions, under which any fault of your own bars recovery completely.
Damage cap
A statutory ceiling on part of an award — usually non-economic damages, sometimes only in medical malpractice.
Durational alimony
Support ordered for a set period rather than indefinitely. Several states cap that period as a share of how long the marriage lasted.
Economic damages
The measurable financial losses from an injury — medical bills, lost wages, and other out-of-pocket costs.
Electronic will
A will executed and signed electronically, valid only where a statute authorises it — and only once that statute is actually in force.
Holographic will
A will written by hand and signed, without witnesses. Recognised in roughly half the states.
Income cap
A ceiling on how much of the payor's income a support formula applies to. Income above it is left to the court's discretion rather than run through the formula.
Income shares model
The child support model most states use: estimate what both parents together would have spent on the child, then split it in proportion to their incomes.
Melson formula
A child support model used in Delaware, Hawaii and Montana that reserves a self-support allowance for each parent before anything is calculated for the children.
Multiplier method
A convention that values pain and suffering by multiplying economic damages by a factor reflecting severity.
Net resources
The income figure a percentage-of-income child support guideline applies its percentage to, defined by statute rather than by what lands in a bank account.
Non-economic damages
Compensation for harm that has no invoice — pain, suffering, and loss of enjoyment of life.
Notice of protest
The filing that opens a property tax appeal, subject to a deadline that ends the appeal if missed.
Overnight
A night the child sleeps at a parent's home — the unit parenting time is counted in, and the one support guidelines key on.
Parenting time percentage
The share of a year's overnights spent with each parent, expressed as a percentage.
Per diem method
The alternative convention: assign a daily amount for the recovery period rather than a multiple of the bills.
Percentage of income model
A child support model that applies a fixed percentage to the paying parent's income and does not look at the other parent's income at all.
Probate
The court process that proves a will and oversees the distribution of an estate.
Self-proving affidavit
A sworn statement attached to a will that lets it be admitted to probate without tracking the witnesses down later.
Self-support reserve
An income floor a support guideline leaves with the paying parent before calculating an order.
Small estate threshold
The value below which a state offers a simplified alternative to full probate.
Specials
Shorthand for special damages: the itemised economic losses in an injury claim.
Spousal support (alimony, maintenance)
Money one former spouse pays the other after a separation or divorce. The three words mean the same thing; which one your state uses is a matter of local drafting.
Statute of limitations
The deadline for filing a claim. Missing it ends the claim regardless of how strong it was.
Statutory factors
The checklist a statute tells a court to weigh when it sets an amount the statute does not compute. In most states this is the whole of the alimony law.
Testator
The person making a will — the figure every execution requirement is written around.