Learn Business English Vocabulary for Commercial Law
Commercial law is the body of law, which governs business and commerce.
Now, let’s take a look at the vocabulary we used to describe the different actions in a commercial case. The first stage in a contractual dispute is often to enter into arbitration.
Arbitration- is the term we use to describe the process by which the parties to a dispute submit their differences to the judgment of an impartial person appointed with the agreement of both sides or by a regulating authority such as a professional organization.
Impartial- to be impartial means that you will treat both sides fairly and equally. Note two strong collocations here. Enter into arbitration and go to arbitration meaning to begin the process of arbitrating a dispute.
Arbitration can be either binding or none binding. If it is binding arbitration then the decision of the arbitrator must be followed, none binding arbitration means the decision cannot be enforced by law but it’s based on professional respect for the arbitrator’s decision.
The arbitrator is usually, experienced, and respected member of the relevant industry or a lawyer. The accusing company can also file a lawsuit to have the dispute heard in the formal court hearing. A lawsuit is a claim or complaint against the person or an organization that is made in a Court of law by a private person or a company. To file a lawsuit is a collocation used to describe the action of suing another party in Court. These are a couple of important words so let’s take a closer look at them.
Lawsuit, can partner with this words to make strong collocations we can bring a lawsuit against somebody defend against a lawsuit or drop a lawsuit. This means that the plaintiff has decided not to pursue the case. To sue means to make a legal claim against someone especially for an amount of money because you’ve been harmed in someway. Sue partners with two prepositions to sue for and to sue over. Here are a couple of example sentences.
“The company was sued for damages by the injured worker. YouTube has been sued over its use of copy writer material. A more formal word with the same meaning as to sue is to litigate and the process of suing another party can be referred to as litigation. If we deicide to sue somebody then we can say we have entered into litigation. The company that files a lawsuit is called the plaintiff in civil law and the company defending against the lawsuit is called the defendant. The plaintiff will often seek damages from the defending party as compensation for any harm cost by the defendant.
Damages are money that the court orders someone to pay the plaintiff for harming them or their property or causing them financial loss. Due to the high cost of legal action and the complexity of many commercial cases both parties will often attempt to reach a settlement in order to avoid a lengthy expensive Court case. A settlement is an agreement to resolve a dispute before it is taken to Court.
We use the collocation to settle out of Court to describe this action. If the parties do not settle the case out of Court then a Court hearing organize in a similar fashion to criminal cases will be held. There each side can state their case ask witnesses to provide testimony, present evidence and litigate their claims. After the plaintiff and defendant have presented their cases a jury or judge will decide the verdict. They can choose to dismiss the case if they do not find that the plaintiff has proven their case or they can award damages if they think the plaintiff is right.
A judge may also issue an injunction against the defendant. An injunction is the judicial order demanding that the defending party stopped infringing the other party’s legal rights. Should the defendant disagree with the verdict. They might choose to file an appeal to have the verdict over turned or to reduce the amount of damages they are liable for.
An appeal is a form of Court process by which the loosing side asks a higher Court to overturn or reverse the verdicts of the lower Court. Well, that about raps up our series on legal vocabulary. We hope you found the podcast informative and useful in your jobs and studies. To help illustrate how many of these terms can be used are next business news podcast will look at some commercial.
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