Jurisdiction - The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a certain type of case. It also is used as a synonym for venue, meaning the geographic area over which the court has territorial jurisdiction to decide cases.⏎
Information - A formal accusation by a government attorney that the defendant committed a misdemeanor. See also indictment.⏎
Face sheet filing - A bankruptcy case filed either without schedules or with incomplete schedules listing few creditors and debts. (Face sheet filings are often made for the purpose of delaying an eviction or foreclosure⏎
Habeas corpus - Latin, meaning "you have the body." A writ of habeas corpus generally is a judicial order forcing law enforcement authorities to produce a prisoner they are holding, and to justify the prisoner's continued confinement. Federal judges receive petitions for a writ of habeas corpus from state prison inmates who say their state prosecutions violated federally protected rights in some way.⏎
Jury instructions - A judge's directions to the jury before it begins deliberations regarding the factual questions it must answer and the legal rules that it must apply.⏎