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H

Legal definitions for terms and concepts beginning with H
Habeas corpus
Latin: a court petition which orders that a person being detained be produced before a judge for a hearing to decide whether the detention is lawful. - (see definition)
Habitual offender
A person who is convicted and sentenced for crimes over a period of time and even after serving sentences of incarceration, such as demonstrates a propensity towards criminal conduct. - (see definition)
Habitual residence
Ordinary residence. - (see definition)
Halliday Order
A special Court order in regards to document disclosure where, in special cases, a lawyer for a litigant, as an officer of the Court, first review documents from specified sources, or at large, and identifies and proposes to set aside and distinguish documents weighed relevancy, for reasons of privilege, privacy, confidentiality, or the potential personal embarrassment of the party given the personal nature of the information in a document. - (see definition)
Hand, Learned
Learned Hand was a judge's judge. American judge who stood up for unpopular but right causes. - (see definition)
Harassment
Unsolicited words or conduct which tend to annoy, alarm or abuse another person. - (see definition)
Hatch Act
An American statute which controls political activity of government employees. - (see definition)
Hearsay
Any evidence that is offered by a witness of which they do not have direct knowledge but, rather, their testimony is based on what others have said to them. - (see definition)
Heir
A beneficiary of a will or an intestacy. - (see definition)
Hereditament
Something which can be inherited. - (see definition)
Heresy
A historic criminal offence comprised of the act of public denial of Christian doctrines. - (see definition)
Hodge's Case
A rule in regards to the use of circumstantial evidence in the conviction of a criminal offence. - (see definition)
Holograph will
A will written entirely in the testator’s handwriting and not witnessed. - (see definition)
Home Invasion
A break and enter of occupied residential premises with forced confinement, assault or battery of occupants. - (see definition)
Homicide
The word includes all occasions where one human being, by act or omission, takes away the life of another. - (see definition)
Homosexuality
Homosexuality - (see definition)
Hostile witness
During an examination-in-chief, a lawyer is not allowed to ask leading questions of their own witness. But, if that witness openly shows hostility against the interests (or the person) that the lawyer represents, the lawyer may ask the court to declare the witness 'hostile', after which, as an exception of the examination-in-chief rules, the lawyer may ask their own witness leading questions. - (see definition)
Hotchpot
The mixing of property for the purposing of effecting an proportionate division. - (see definition)
Hue and Cry
A community fugitive containment strategy of medieval England where a yell went up denouncing the offender and all within earshot took up the chase. - (see definition)
Hung jury
A jury is required to make a unanimous or near unanimous verdict. - (see definition)
Husband-wife privilege
A special right that married persons have to keep communications between them secret and even inaccessible to a court of law. - (see definition)

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Unless otherwise noted, this article was written by Lloyd Duhaime, Barrister, Solicitor, Attorney and Lawyer (and Notary Public!). It is not intended to be legal advice and you would be foolhardy to rely on it in respect to any specific situation you or an acquaintance may be facing. In addition, the law changes rapidly and sometimes with little notice so from time to time, an article may not be up to date. Therefore, this is merely legal information designed to educate the reader. If you have a real situation, this information will serve as a good springboard to get legal advice from a lawyer.

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