Legal Dictionary

judgment

Legal Definition of judgment

Noun

  1. <ol type="a">
  2. A formal decision or determination on a matter or case by a court. Esp.: "Final judgment" in this entry
  3. An obligation (as a debt) created by a decree of a court. Also: An official document embodying such a decision or decree
  4. A declaration by a court of the conviction of a criminal defendant and the punishment to be imposed
  • The action of judging: the mental or intellectual process of forming an opinion or making a decision. Also : An opinion or decision so formed
  • Related terms


    Definition of judgment

    Alternative forms

    Etymology

      From Old French jugement.

    Pronunciation

    • enPR: jÅ­j'mÉ™nt, IPA: /ˈdÊ'ÊŒdÊ'.mÉ™nt/, SAMPA: /"dZVdZm@nt/
    • Audio (US) [?]

    Noun

    judgment (plural judgments)

    1. The act of judging.
    2. The power or faculty of performing such operations; especially, when unqualified, the faculty of judging or deciding rightly, justly, or wisely; as, a man of judgment; a politician without judgment.
    3. The conclusion or result of judging; an opinion; a decision.
    4. (law) The act of determining, as in courts of law, what is conformable to law and justice; also, the determination, decision, or sentence of a court, or of a judge.

      * Jeremy Taylor.
      In judgments between rich and poor, consider not what the poor man needs, but what is his own.

      * Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice, IV-i
      Most heartily I do beseech the court To give the judgment.

    5. (theology) The final award; the last sentence.

    Usage notes

    See Judgment: Spelling for discussion of spelling usage of judgment versus judgement. Briefly, without the -e is preferred in law globally, and in American English, while with the -e is preferred in British English.

    Like abridgment, acknowledgment, and lodgment, judgment is sometimes written with English spellings in American English, as judgement (respectively, abridgement, acknowledgement, and lodgement).

    Further reading

    Judgement (or judgment) is the evaluation of evidence in the making of a decision. The term has three distinct uses:

    • Informal and psychological - used in reference to the quality of cognitive faculties and adjudicational capabilities of particular individuals, typically called wisdom or discernment.
    • Legal - used in the context of legal trial, to refer to a final finding, statement, or ruling, based on a considered weighing of evidence, called "adjudication".
    • Religious - used in the concept of salvation to refer to the adjudication of God in determining Heaven or Hell for each and all human beings.

    References:

    1. Wiktionary. Published under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

    Translation of judgment in Malay

    Penghakiman

    Noun

    (law) act of determining, as in courts of law, what is conformable to law and justice

    1. Penghakiman



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