North Dakota Accidents
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North Dakota Accidents Dictionary
Legal and insurance terms explained plainly
29 terms
adverse inference
Why would a judge let the jury assume missing evidence would have hurt the side that lost or destroyed it? That is an adverse inference: a rule a court may use when someone had...
DICTIONARY
2026-03-30
asbestosis
Miss this word in a medical record or job-site history, and a serious lung disease can be mistaken for ordinary shortness of breath, aging, or a smoking-related problem until...
DICTIONARY
2026-03-23
authentication
Like checking a driver's license before handing over the keys, authentication is the step where you prove a piece of evidence is what you say it is. In a legal or insurance...
DICTIONARY
2026-03-28
best evidence rule
Do I really need the original document, photo, or recording to prove what it says? Usually, yes - that is the basic idea behind the best evidence rule. When a party wants to...
DICTIONARY
2026-03-30
biomonitoring
You just got a letter that says your blood or urine will be tested after a chemical spill at work, near a farm operation, or along a trucking route like US-85. Biomonitoring is...
DICTIONARY
2026-03-22
business records exception
You just got a letter that says the other side plans to use hospital billing records, work logs, or trucking company maintenance sheets without bringing in every person who...
DICTIONARY
2026-03-27
dangerous dog designation
Has a dog already been flagged by the city or county as a serious risk? A dangerous dog designation is an official label placed on a dog after aggressive behavior, a bite, or...
DICTIONARY
2026-04-02
demonstrative evidence
Not the same thing as the actual object involved in an event, demonstrative evidence is usually a visual or explanatory aid used to help a judge, jury, insurer, or opposing...
DICTIONARY
2026-03-28
dose-response relationship
What trips people up most is that more exposure does not always mean more harm in a straight, simple line. Sometimes small doses do little, larger doses cause obvious injury,...
DICTIONARY
2026-03-22
excited utterance
Picture someone blurting out, "That truck ran the light!" seconds after a crash, before anyone has had time to slow down, compare stories, or polish what happened. In law and...
DICTIONARY
2026-03-28
foundation
Like setting the base for a house before putting up the walls, evidence has to rest on basic supporting facts before anyone can rely on it. In legal and insurance settings,...
DICTIONARY
2026-03-30
Functional Capacity Evaluation
The key point is that a functional capacity evaluation is not the same thing as an impairment rating. A functional capacity evaluation, often called an FCE, measures what a...
DICTIONARY
2026-03-21
hearsay
People often mix up hearsay with a witness's own testimony. A witness's testimony is what that person directly saw, heard, or experienced. Hearsay is an out-of-court statement...
DICTIONARY
2026-03-31
hearsay exception
Can someone really repeat what another person said in court and have it count? Sometimes, yes. A hearsay exception is a rule that allows an out-of-court statement to be used as...
DICTIONARY
2026-03-24
homeowner's liability for dog bite
No, a homeowner is not automatically off the hook just because the dog belonged to a tenant, a relative, or someone "just visiting." That is the most common bad advice. What...
DICTIONARY
2026-04-01
leash law violation
Insurance adjusters and defense lawyers may use this phrase to shift blame after a dog attack or knockdown, suggesting the injured person is overreacting because the owner only...
DICTIONARY
2026-03-31
litigation hold
What should happen once a crash, injury, or other dispute looks headed toward a claim or lawsuit? A litigation hold is a formal step telling people and businesses to keep...
DICTIONARY
2026-03-26
Lone Pine order
Thirty days can be enough to lose your place in a mass tort, and this is not a ruling that decides who wins the case. A Lone Pine order is a judge's case-management order that...
DICTIONARY
2026-03-22
one-bite rule
You may see this phrase in an insurance letter, a claim denial, or a call where someone says the dog "never bit anyone before," as if that ends the case. Usually, they are...
DICTIONARY
2026-04-02
permissible exposure limit
A legal ceiling on how much of a hazardous substance a worker can be exposed to. "Permissible" means allowed by regulation, not safe for everyone. "Exposure" is the amount of a...
DICTIONARY
2026-03-23
prejudicial effect
People often mix this up with probative value, but they are not the same. Probative value is how much a piece of evidence actually helps prove a fact that matters. Prejudicial...
DICTIONARY
2026-03-23
present sense impression
You just got a letter that says a witness's statement may be admissible as a "present sense impression" even though the witness is not in court. That usually means the...
DICTIONARY
2026-03-25
preservation letter
You may see language like, "Please preserve all evidence related to this incident," in a letter from a lawyer, insurer, or injured person shortly after a crash or other serious...
DICTIONARY
2026-03-27
probative value
You'll usually see it in a lawyer's letter, an insurance denial, or a judge's ruling saying some photo, record, statement, or test result has "high probative value" or "low...
DICTIONARY
2026-03-30
quarantine period
It is not automatic proof that an animal is dangerous, and it is not a punishment for the owner. A quarantine period is a set span of time when an animal is kept under...
DICTIONARY
2026-04-03
relevance
Miss this early, and a case can get buried under papers, photos, and stories that feel meaningful but do not actually help prove what happened. Relevance is the basic rule that...
DICTIONARY
2026-03-25
scienter
What trips people up most is that this word is not about science. In law, it means knowledge - usually proof that a person knew a fact that matters. In injury cases involving...
DICTIONARY
2026-04-03
spoliation of evidence
Lose the photos, toss the damaged part, let surveillance footage auto-delete, and a strong injury claim can shrink fast. Bad advice often says, "If it wasn't intentional, it...
DICTIONARY
2026-03-26
strict liability dog bite
Many people assume a dog bite claim automatically succeeds any time a dog breaks the skin. Not quite. Strict liability for a dog bite means the injured person does not have to...
DICTIONARY
2026-03-31
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