Success billing is a method for lawyers to bill and charge clients based on the favorable outcome of the services rendered by the lawyer. This billing method is an alternative fee arrangement because the client pays the lawyer under a scheme...
legal practice/ethics
suit
See: lawsuit
[Last updated in August of 2021 by the Wex Definitions Team]
summation
In a legal trial, summation refers to the final, closing argument articulated by a litigant to a judge or jury concerning the merits of their side of a case. In contrast to an opening statement, in which a litigant may only preview what the...
sunshine laws
Sunshine laws are regulations requiring public disclosure of government agency meetings and records. Sunshine laws require specific businesses and government agencies to maintain transparency and disclose their activities to the public. The...
supernumerary witness
A supernumerary witness is an extra witness that is not required; being beyond the requisite number of witnesses. In law, a supernumerary witness is one whose testimony is considered excessive or unnecessary for the resolution of a legal case...
supersedeas
Supersedeas (also termed “writ of supersedeas”) is Latin for “you shall desist.” It refers to a stay of the enforcement of a judgment pending appeal. Essentially, it is a writ or bond that suspends a judgment creditor’s power to levy...
supplemental
Supplemental means completing or making an addition to, particularly to a document - for example, a supplemental complaint, supplemental claim, or supplemental proceeding.
Some common uses of the term “supplemental” in a...
supplemental pleadings
A pleading that sets forth transactions or occurrences or events which happened since the date of the pleading, with the purpose of supplementing it. The court may permit these through motion. Even if the original pleading was defective, it may still...
Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act of 2010
Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act of 2010 (also known as S.B. 1070) was a highly controversial piece of immigration legislation in the state of Arizona. The bill was enacted in response to years of increasing illegal...
surplusage
Surplusage is language contained in a pleading that is unnecessary or irrelevant. For example, in an indictment, surplusage is the allegation of any fact or circumstances that is not a necessary element to the offense. Surplusage may be...