appellate procedure

decision

In the legal context, a decision is a judicial determination of parties’ rights and obligations reached by a court based on facts and law. A decision can mean either the act of delivering a court’s order or the text of the court’s opinion on the case and the accompanying court order.

declaration

A declaration is an official statement, or proclamation, such as an affidavit. If the person making the declaration (called the declarant) lies in it, the declarant may be guilty of perjury.

[Last reviewed in September of 2022 by the Wex Definitions Team]

declaration under penalty of perjury

Declaration under penalty of perjury is a statement of facts or testimony accompanied by the declaration that the person making the statement will be found guilty of perjury if the facts declared in the statement are shown to be untrue. A person will be guilty of perjury if they submit false testimony to the court, either orally or in writing, and the false testimony is material to the matters before the court.

defective verdict

A defective verdict is a verdict flawed to such extent that a judgment cannot be based on it. There are several instances that might occur to render a verdict defective. For example, a verdict may be defective because of procedural irregularities during deliberations.

Taxonomy upgrade extras

deponent

A deponent is the individual whose deposition, or sworn, out-of-court testimony, is taken during the discovery process. The deponent can either be a party to the case, a witness who will later testify at trial, or anyone with knowledge of facts relating to the case. 

Subscribe to appellate procedure