There are basic legal terms which all of us must know in our regular life. No, you don’t need to be a lawyer to have an understanding of these terms. The criminal lawyer Toronto can be contacted to run any criminal case. The following are the must know legal terms:

Damages

This is a term used by the lawyer to indicate the claim amount that his client deserves in a lawsuit. It actually means the loss incurred. It could be in the form of economic as well as non-economic damages. Anything that is quantified and can be felt falls under the category of economic damage whereas emotions and distress comes in non-economic categories.

Defendant

A defendant is the person who speaks in favor of himself in the lawsuit. He is usually considered a person of wrongdoing. But he will be considered guilty only if he is proved wrong. A defendant can fight the case all by himself or he can hire a defense lawyer. There are Toronto criminal law firms that have best of the lawyers to take care of the entire legal proceedings.

Docket

A docket is the way the court keeps track of your course. It could be in the singular form or the plural form. . When the court says that your case is on docket, it means that the case is scheduled for hearing.

Liability

The defendant is usually considered the person of wrongdoing. Liability means that the defendant is responsible for compensating the other person for the damages incurred. This is possible only if the defendant is proved guilty of the crime.

Plaintiff

He is also known as claimant. A claimant usually files the case and claims for the damages that he has suffered due to the defendant.

Testify

It means taking oath before the proceedings which is a proof that the parties will speak truth and nothing else. A defendant and the claimant may be asked to testify during a trial or during the prosecution of the case.

Default

There are many formalities that the court expects you to fulfill as a part of the case proceedings. For example, appearing for the said date is mandatory for both the parties. In case, if a single party fails, the verdict by default goes in favor of the other party. There could be many other such requirements which are mandatory to be followed. Thus, in such cases the default rule works.

Thus, as a layman it is mandatory to know these basic law terms. Though, you will be hiring a lawyer to take care of your case, but by knowing these basic terms, you will be in a better position to understand the proceedings. You no longer have to dependant on the lawyer for every single word that is spoken in the court. There are many other such terms which can be easily picked by any citizen and have a hang of it. The Toronto criminal lawyers can be hired for any legal advice or support.