Elements of a crime - Specific factors that define a crime which the prosecution must prove beyond a reasonable doubt in order to obtain a conviction: (1) that a crime has actually occurred, (2) that the accused intended the crime to happen, and (3) a timely relationship between the first two factors.

Eminent Domain - The power of the government to take private property for public use through condemnation.

En Banc - All the judges of a court sitting together. Appellate courts can consist of a dozen or more judges, but often they hear cases in panels of three judges. If a case is heard or reheard by the full court, it is heard en banc.

Encyclopedia - A book or series of books arranged alphabetically by topics containing information on areas of law, including citations to support the information.

Enjoining - An order by the court telling a person to stop performing a specific act.

Entity - A person or legally recognized organization.

Entrapment - The act of inducing a person to commit a crime so that a criminal charge will be brought against him.

Entry - A statement of conclusion reached by the court and placed in the court record.

Environment - The conditions, influences, or forces which affect the desirability and value of property, as well as the effect on people's lives.

Environmental Protection (EPA) - A federal agency created to permit coordinated and environment effective governmental action to preserve the quality of the . Agency

Equal Protection of the Law - The guarantee in the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that all persons be treated equally by the law.

Equity - Justice administered according to fairness; the spirit or habit of fairness in dealing with other persons.

Escheat - The process by which a deceased person's property goes to the state if no heir can be found.

Escrow - Money or a written instrument such as a deed that, by agreement between two parties, is held by a neutral third party (held in escrow) until all conditions of the agreement are met.

Esquire - In the United States the title commonly appended after the name of an attorney. In English law a title of dignity next above gentleman and below knight. Title also given to barristers at law and others. Abbreviated: Esq.

Estate - A person's property.

Estate tax - Generally, a tax on the privilege of transferring property to others after a person's death. In addition to federal estate taxes, many states have their own estate taxes.

Estoppel - An impediment that prevents a person from asserting or doing something contrary to his own previous assertion or act.

Ethics - Of or relating to moral action and conduct; professionally right; conforming to professional standards.

Evidence - Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.

Exceptions - Declarations by either side in a civil or criminal case reserving the right to appeal a judge's ruling upon a motion. Also, in regulatory cases, objections by either side to points made by the other side or to rulings by the agency or one of its hearing officers.

Exclusionary Rule - The rule preventing illegally obtained evidence to be used in any trial.

Execute - To complete; to sign; to carry out according to its terms.

Executor - A personal representative, named in a will, who administers an estate.

Exempt property - All the property of a debtor which is not attachable under the Bankruptcy Code or the state statute.

Exhibit - A document or other item introduced as evidence during a trial or hearing.

Exonerate - Removal of a charge, responsibility, or duty.

Ex parte - On behalf of only one party, without notice to any other party. For example, a request for a search warrant is an ex parte proceeding, since the person subject to the search is not notified of the proceeding and is not present at the hearing.

Ex parte proceeding - Action Circumstances which render a crime less aggravated, heinous, or reprehensible than it would otherwise be.

Expungement - The process by which the record of criminal conviction is destroyed or sealed.

Extradition - The surrender of an accused criminal by one state to the jurisdiction of another.