Legal recourse
Encyclopedia
A legal recourse is an action that can be taken by an individual or a corporation to attempt to remedy a legal difficulty.
- A lawsuitLawsuitA lawsuit or "suit in law" is a civil action brought in a court of law in which a plaintiff, a party who claims to have incurred loss as a result of a defendant's actions, demands a legal or equitable remedy. The defendant is required to respond to the plaintiff's complaint...
if the issue is a matter of civil lawCivil law (common law)Civil law, as opposed to criminal law, is the branch of law dealing with disputes between individuals or organizations, in which compensation may be awarded to the victim... - Many contracts require mediationMediationMediation, as used in law, is a form of alternative dispute resolution , a way of resolving disputes between two or more parties. A third party, the mediator, assists the parties to negotiate their own settlement...
or arbitrationArbitrationArbitration, a form of alternative dispute resolution , is a legal technique for the resolution of disputes outside the courts, where the parties to a dispute refer it to one or more persons , by whose decision they agree to be bound...
before a dispute can go to court - Referral to policePoliceThe police is a personification of the state designated to put in practice the enforced law, protect property and reduce civil disorder in civilian matters. Their powers include the legitimized use of force...
or prosecutorProsecutorThe prosecutor is the chief legal representative of the prosecution in countries with either the common law adversarial system, or the civil law inquisitorial system...
for investigation and possible criminal charges if the matter is a criminal violationCriminal lawCriminal law, is the body of law that relates to crime. It might be defined as the body of rules that defines conduct that is not allowed because it is held to threaten, harm or endanger the safety and welfare of people, and that sets out the punishment to be imposed on people who do not obey... - Petition to a legislatureLegislatureA legislature is a kind of deliberative assembly with the power to pass, amend, and repeal laws. The law created by a legislature is called legislation or statutory law. In addition to enacting laws, legislatures usually have exclusive authority to raise or lower taxes and adopt the budget and...
or other law-making body for a change in the law if a law is thought to be unjust. - Petition to a presidentPresidentA president is a leader of an organization, company, trade union, university, or country.Etymologically, a president is one who presides, who sits in leadership...
or governorGovernorA governor is a governing official, usually the executive of a non-sovereign level of government, ranking under the head of state...
or monarchMonarchA monarch is the person who heads a monarchy. This is a form of government in which a state or polity is ruled or controlled by an individual who typically inherits the throne by birth and occasionally rules for life or until abdication...
other chief executive or other official with power to pardon.
Legal principles
- Habeas corpusHabeas corpusis a writ, or legal action, through which a prisoner can be released from unlawful detention. The remedy can be sought by the prisoner or by another person coming to his aid. Habeas corpus originated in the English legal system, but it is now available in many nations...
- Damnum absque injuriaDamnum absque injuriaIn law, damnum absque injuria is a phrase expressing the principle of tort law in which some person causes damage or loss to another, but does not injure them, and thus the latter has no legal remedy...
, loss without injury - Arm's length principleArm's length principleThe arm's length principle is the condition or the fact that the parties to a transaction are independent and on an equal footing. Such a transaction is known as an "arm's-length transaction"...
Examples
- Arranged marriageArranged marriageAn arranged marriage is a practice in which someone other than the couple getting married makes the selection of the persons to be wed, meanwhile curtailing or avoiding the process of courtship. Such marriages had deep roots in royal and aristocratic families around the world...
s may leave the woman without legal recourse. - Bookies and confidence tricksters rely on the mark being involved in illegal activity to block legal recourse.
- Victims of bullying may have legal recourse in the United States.
- The Class Action Fairness Act of 2005Class Action Fairness Act of 2005The U.S. Class Action Fairness Act of 2005, 28 U.S.C. Sections 1332, 1453, and 1711–1715, expanded federal jurisdiction over many large class-action lawsuits and mass actions taken in the United States....
purportedly leaves consumer groups without legal recourse. - Diploma millDiploma millA diploma mill is an organization that awards academic degrees and diplomas with substandard or no academic study and without recognition by official educational accrediting bodies. The purchaser can then claim to hold an academic degree, and the organization is motivated by making a profit...
s and essay millEssay millAn essay mill is a ghostwriting service that sells essays and other homework writing to university and college students. Since plagiarism is a form of academic dishonesty or academic fraud, universities and colleges may investigate papers suspected to be from an essay mill by using Internet...
s employ various legal techniques to leave their customers without legal recourse. - In termination of employmentEmploymentEmployment is a contract between two parties, one being the employer and the other being the employee. An employee may be defined as:- Employee :...
, an employee may have legal recourse to challenge such a termination in at-will presumption of employment in the United StatesUnited StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. - Victims of joke theft have little legal recourse, but have occasionally exacted their own vengeance.
- LynchingsLynching in the United StatesLynching, the practice of killing people by extrajudicial mob action, occurred in the United States chiefly from the late 18th century through the 1960s. Lynchings took place most frequently in the South from 1890 to the 1920s, with a peak in the annual toll in 1892.It is associated with...
- Military tribunalMilitary tribunalA military tribunal is a kind of military court designed to try members of enemy forces during wartime, operating outside the scope of conventional criminal and civil proceedings. The judges are military officers and fulfill the role of jurors...
- Rumsfeld v. PadillaRumsfeld v. PadillaRumsfeld v. Padilla, , was a United States Supreme Court case, in which José Padilla sought habeas corpus relief against Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, as a result of his detainment as an "unlawful combatant."...