Law Library Legal Dictionary – P
Legal Definitions – P
Paid Vacation, Holiday, and Sick Leave – Employee benefits that are given at the discretion of the employer and are not mandatory by law.
Pain and Suffering Damages – A form of damages that are awarded to a plaintiff who has experienced some sort of mental or physical pain as a result of their injury.
Palimony – A form of alimony due to a person who was part of a relationship where the partners were not legally married.
Parent Alienation Syndrome – The diagnosis of a child who is exhibiting behavioral abnormalities due to parental alienation. Parental alienation occurs where one parent deliberately attempts to distance the other parent from the child.
Parental Kidnapping Prevention Act – Federal law that is designed to promote the best interests of the child in a custody decision and to prevent parental abduction into other jurisdictions.
Parental Preference Rule – A rule that states the custody of minor will ordinarily be granted to a fit biological parent, rather than a non-parent.
Parental Responsibility for Juvenile Crime – The legal responsibility of a parent for crimes that his child has committed. The child’s crime is imputed to his parents as a result of an applicable parental accountability law.
Parental Rights – The legal rights that every parent has in relation to their child.
Parenting Plan – A detailed schedule of the parenting time that will be allotted for each parent. It is often required in cases involving divorce, separation, custody, or annulment.
Parody & Satire – Uses of a copyrighted work that qualify as fair use.
Parol Evidence Rule – A rule that prevents a party from introducing evidence of prior oral agreements that occurred before or while the agreement was being reduced to its final form in order to alter the terms of the existing contract.
Parole – The conditional and early release of a prisoner, in which he serves the remaining portion of the prison sentence under supervision in the community.
Partition of Property – The forced division of land among parties who were formerly co-owners.
Partial Settlement – A situation in which the parties in a lawsuit agree to settle, but they do not actually settle on all of the legal issues involved and continue to litigate some of the issues of the case.
Partnership by Estoppel – A legally binding partnership that is inferred by the court where, in fact, no formal partnership agreement is in effect. This type of partnership has the effect of making a a person who is not technically a partner liable as a general partner would be for any debts and damages owed to a third party.
Partnership – An arrangement in which parties agree to cooperate to advance their mutual interests. See also: Dissolving a General Partnership, Partnership Agreement, Business Partnership
Passive Activity Income – Income produced from a trade or business that a person materially participates in during the tax year.
Past Due Support Payments – Support payments, such as child support payments or alimony payments, that haven’t been paid to the party they are owed.
Patent – A set of exclusive rights granted to an inventor in order to exclude others from “making, using, offering for sale or selling the invention” in the United States. See also: Getting a Patent, Patent Duration, Title to a Patent
Patent Infringement – The unauthorized manufacture, use, sale, or importation of a patented invention.
Patent Licensing – The process of a patent holder authorizing another to make, sell, or otherwise use the subject matter of the patent.
Patent Pending – A status granted to a patent that has been filed but has yet to actually finish going through the application process.
Paternity Leave – The limited time a father takes off work when a child is born or adopted. Employers are required under the Family Medical Leave Act to permit employees to take this time off.
Patient Privacy Rights – Rights that a patient possesses to keep others from reading his or her medical records.
