Merriam Webster</br></br>Product Description</br></br>Revised and updated for 2016, this trade paperback provides a convenient, comprehensive guide to the language of law for everyone from the homeowner to the legal professional. Defines more than 10,000 legal words and phrases in common terminology. <br><br>New and updated entries taken from recent events include buffer zone, cybersecurity, gun control law, and marriage. <br><br>Important laws including the Affordable Care Act and the Voting Rights Act and agencies like the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau were updated to reflect recent Supreme Court decisions and new legislation.<br><br>New entries include: benefit corporation, civil union, community supervision, right-to-die law, voter ID law, health care power of attorney, cyber insurance, e-discovery, and reverse redlining.<br><br>Special sections included on the judicial system, important legal cases, government agencies and landmark laws.</br></br>Amazon.com Review</br></br>To the ordinary person, who hasn't spent three years grinding through law school, legalese gets its point across as clearly and effortlessly as a dose of ancient Greek. Right up there with medical lingo, legal jargon confuses and alienates folks, makes them feel stupid and ill at ease. A translation or two, however, can go a long way toward clearing the legal air. With concise and sensible definitions, <I>Merriam Webster's Dictionary of Law</I> converts a lease, will, or summons into standard English, and removes the intimidation factor from what is, basically, an effort at reliable communication. Been wondering about tortfeasors and arrears, peculation and naked promises, John Doe summonses and Terry stops? From ABA (American Bar Association) to Zone of Privacy ("an area or aspect of life that is held to be protected from intrusion by a specific constitutional guarantee"), the dictionary defines and explains 10,000 legal terms, allowing a ready grasp of laws, statutes, and legal procedures to anyone who knows how to crack open a dictionary.<p> Despite the title, the book is more than a mere dictionary. There's a chapter explaining the United States judicial system, a chapter discussing important legal cases, and another summarizing important laws. There's also a section on important legal agencies in the U.S., followed by the full Constitution of the United States, making this a useful family legal reference, adding clarity to news reports, assisting with homework assignments, simplifying potentially scary legal actions, and making government agencies, civil rights, and legal options less daunting and more accessible. <I>--Stephanie Gold</I></br><br/>http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0877797358