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Legal Dictionaries
Experience researchers know how valuable legal dictionaries can be
This month with the addition of Bouvier’s Legal Dictionary, the LawyerIntl.com
goes to the front of the competition for free online legal dictionaries.
The announcement is worth reading.
It does seem to be more tuned to the legal user than the law.com’s legal dictionary which is built on Merriam-Webster’s Legal Dictionary
As for Canada, Lloyd Duhaime’s work covers some Canadian terms but isn’t anything like as comprehensive as Daphne Dukelow‘s print version.
Bottom line – hang on to Black’s Legal Dictionary
Thank you for the reference to this great resource. However, the description of it you linked to states: “By staying clear of jargon, the dictionary offers fast and concise information, whether the user is searching for a description of an latin term, a legal abbreviation, or a legal research topic. It contains thousands of entries from all areas of law.” This is a little misleading. If you search for a term like “trover” and get only a Bouvier 1856 hit, you’ll see what I mean. In-line links off of terms like “the declaration” and “the general issue” or even “chattel” would help.
On the subject of special pleading, if anyone ever wants to know a good short reference book on it, which describes the special pleading terms like ‘declaration’, ‘general issue’, demurrer, etc. see a book called R. Sutton, Personal Actions at Common Law (1929). The Supreme Court of Canada and U of O have copies, I think.