Latin for Lawyers

LETTERS AD COLLIGENDUM BONA DEFUNCTI

LETTERS AD COLLIGENDUM BONA DEFUNCTI An order instructing a person to gather and preserve the goods and posses sions of a deceased. These instructions did not of themselves make the desig nee the executor or administrator of the deceased’s estate. LETTERS AVOCATORY [L. advoco, advocare / to call up, to summon] An order instructing a person to return to his home country from another country with which his country is at war. LETTERS ROGATORY [L. rogo, rogare / to ask, entreat] The request of a court in one country to a court in another country asking the latter to force a witness to answer interrogatories or to produce a document. LEVARI FACIAS [L. levare / to raise or pick up + facere / to make or do] A type of common law writ of execution issued to the sheriff enabling a judg ment creditor to seize both the debtor’s assets and the profits from his land. See FACIAS; FIERI FACIAS LEVERAGE [L. levare / to raise, lift up] The relationship between the amount invested or committed to the capital of a business and the amount borrowed from outside sources; the greater the amount of borrowing relative to capital, the greater the leverage. A leveraged buyout refers to the acquisition of a company essentially by the use of bor rowings secured by the assets of the acquired company. LEVY [L. levare / to lift up] To impose or collect a fine or assessment. To require payment by exercising legal authority. Also, to conscript for service in the military. To wage war. To In the broad sense, lex is synonymous with jus . However, more precisely, jus conveys a sense of law based on ethical or moral right, while lex is more sim ply a statement of law in its pragmatic applications. LEX ACTUS [L. lex / law + actus / the act of doing or moving something] The place in which something is done; the place where the action takes place; e.g., in a tort action, the place where the accident happens. In cases involving conflicts of laws, the lex actus may be controlling in resolving the issues. LEX AEQUITATE GAUDET [L. lex + aequitas / equity, fairness, evenness + gaudere / to be glad, to rejoice] The law rejoices when it imparts equity. seize property under an order or writ of a court. LEX [L. A law, a statute, a collection of laws]

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