Online data reveals the legal terms people LEAST understand!

An online data platform has revealed over 20 legal terms that most people are either unsure of or do not understand.

The findings conducted by  Upliftlegalfunding.com found that ‘affidavit’ is the legal term that people are most unsure about, exemplified by an average of 349,200 global online searches per month from individuals trying to discover the legal term’s true meaning.

‘Conviction’ is in second position, as there are an average 127,300 worldwide online searches a month from people wanting to understand what the legal term truly represents. 

In third position is ‘collateral’, with an average 116,800 monthly online searches from people trying to educate themselves on what the legal term means.

‘Class action’ (115,700) and ‘de facto’ (86,250) are among the other legal terms that receive over 85,000 online searches a month from individuals trying to determine their true context and use in the legal field, respectively ranking fourth and fifth.

At the other end in 20^th position is ‘warrant’, with an average 35,200 online searches every month from those seeking to gain more knowledge on the legal term.

‘Class action’ (115,700) and ‘de facto’ (86,250) are among the other legal terms that receive over 85,000 online searches a month from individuals trying to determine their true context and use in the legal field, respectively ranking fourth and fifth.

The Definitions of the 20 Legal Terms:

1. Affidavit – A written, or printed statement made under oath. It is typically provided alongside a witness statement to prove the truthfulness of a statement in court.
2. Conviction – A formal declaration by the verdict of jury or decision by judge that a criminal defendant is guilty of a criminal offence.
3. Collateral – Property that is pleaded as security for the satisfaction and repayment of a debt.
4. Class Action – Is a lawsuit which is filed or defended by an individual acting on behalf of a group.
5. De Facto – Something that exists but not necessarily by legal right.
6. Deposition – A verbal statement typically made before an officer authorised by law to administer an oath or oaths.
7. Moot – Not subject to court ruling because the controversy has not actually arisen, or a mock judicial proceeding set up to conduct hypothetical cases as an academic exercise.
8. Lien – A defined right to keep possession of property belonging to another person until a debt owed by that person is discharged.
9. Sanction – Types of enforcement such a penalty used to enforce/bring about compliance with the law or with set rules and regulation.
10. Appellate – The process of handling applications for decisions to be reversed.
11. Jurisdiction – The official authority and power to make legal decisions and judgements.
12. Probation – Is the legal provision made by a court for a period of supervision over an offender instead of serving time in prison.
13. Acquittal – In the end stage of a criminal trial, a judge or jury finds a defendant not guilty.
14. Parole – Is when a prisoner is released early from their sentence on the bases they agree to certain conditions such as regular supervision.
15. Equitable – The difference between legal and equitable rights.
16. Tort – A civil but not criminal wrong.
17. Habeas corpus – A writ requiring a person under arrest to be brought before a judge or into court.
18. Injunction – When a court order stops one or more named parties from taking a certain action(s).
19. Bail – Prior to trial, it is the temporary release of an accused individual – typically a set financial sum needs to be paid for the pretrial release of the individual.
20. Warrant – A legal document issued by a legal or government official permitting the police or another official/recognised body to conduct a premises search or make an arrest.

The Methodology for the Research:

1. Upliftlegalfunding.com wanted to establish the legal terms which people least understand.
2. Gathering information from various reputable online sources, Upliftlegalfunding.com found hundreds of commonly used legal terms.
3. Upliftlegalfunding.com then used online analytics tool Ahrefs and inserted into the Ahrefs database each of the identified legal terms to establish on average how many times per month people search online for each legal term’s meaning online.
4. To increase the validity of the results, Upliftlegalfunding.com did consider the different ways in which people search for the same thing online. Upliftlegalfunding.com accounted for different online search variations for each legal term e.g. ‘affidavit meaning’, ‘affidavit definition’, ‘what does affidavit mean?’ etc.
5. Once stage three was completed for the all the identified legal terms, – the results were ranked from highest to lowest based on the average number of worldwide online searches for each legal term’s meaning.
6. The top 20 results were extracted and presented in the final results table.
7. All online search data figures used in the research represent monthly average figures and are all global search volume figures.