Virtuous English AcademyLaw & Justice — B2 English Vocabulary
This B2 vocabulary list gathers 50 upper-intermediate English words about law & justice — courts, contracts and legal process. Every word comes with a simple definition, its British-English pronunciation and a natural example sentence, so you learn each one in real context. When you are ready, open the flashcards to practise and remember them for good.
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Using law & justice words in English
Courtroom English divides its participants precisely, and swapping them changes who is accusing whom. It also contains a verb whose past tense differs across the Atlantic — plead gives pleaded in British English and pled in much American usage — and a pair of adjectives, legal and legitimate, that overlap without being interchangeable.
What to watch out for
Who is who in a case
The defendant is the person accused or sued. In a criminal case the state brings the prosecution; in a civil case the person suing is the claimant in British English and the plaintiff in American. A witness gives testimony; the jury reaches a verdict; the judge then passes sentence. To acquit is to find not guilty, and it takes of: acquitted of all charges.
Legal is about the law; legitimate is about justification
Something legal is permitted by law. Something legitimate is justified, reasonable or properly authorised, and it need not be a legal question at all: a legitimate concern, a legitimate business. Their opposites diverge too — illegal against the law, illegitimate unjustified or improperly constituted. Note also lawful and unlawful, which are more formal near-synonyms of legal and illegal.
Pleaded or pled, and liable for
British English and formal legal writing use pleaded: He pleaded guilty. Pled is common in American and Scottish usage. The preposition patterns are fixed: liable for the damage, liable to a penalty, sue for compensation, appeal against a decision in British English but appeal a decision in American.
Words learners mix up
Legal English is a vocabulary of stages. Three groups matter most: what happens to the accused before trial, which court hears what, and how a case actually ends — which, far more often than television suggests, is without a verdict.
Before, during and after: who is being held, and why
| Word | What it actually means | In a sentence |
|---|---|---|
| detain | To hold someone, usually before any charge. The verb of police powers, and it says nothing about guilt. | He was detained for questioning. |
| custody | Being held by the authorities. Also, confusingly, the legal care of a child — context separates them. | Remanded in custody until March. |
| bail | Release before trial, on conditions and sometimes on payment. Granted or refused, and it can be breached. | She was granted bail of £50,000. |
| probation | A sentence served in the community under supervision, instead of prison. | Two years’ probation and 100 hours of unpaid work. |
| parole | Early release from a prison sentence already begun, under supervision. | Eligible for parole after eight years. |
The line worth remembering runs through the trial: bail and custody come before it, probation replaces prison, and parole interrupts prison that has already started. So a person on probation has never been imprisoned for that offence, while a person on parole has.
Which court, and how serious
| Word | What it actually means | In a sentence |
|---|---|---|
| magistrate | A lay or junior judge hearing less serious criminal cases. In England most criminal cases begin and end here. | The case came before a magistrate. |
| tribunal | A specialist body outside the ordinary courts — employment, immigration, tax. Less formal, and often without lawyers. | An employment tribunal found in her favour. |
| jurisdiction | The authority of a court to hear a case, and the territory over which it runs. | The court has no jurisdiction over events abroad. |
| felony | A serious crime. American classification — British law abolished the term in 1967. | Convicted of a felony in Ohio. |
| misdemeanour | A minor offence, in the same American scheme. British English keeps the word only in its everyday sense of a small misdeed. | A misdemeanour charge was dropped. |
The last two are the trap for a British English exam: felony and misdemeanour are American legal categories, familiar from imported drama, and English law now speaks of indictable and summary offences instead. Use them when writing about the United States, and expect a reader to hear American English when you do.
How cases actually end
| Word | What it actually means | In a sentence |
|---|---|---|
| settlement | An agreement that ends a civil case before judgment, usually with money and often with silence. | They reached an out-of-court settlement. |
| compensation | Money to make good a loss. Uncountable, and it is the purpose of the payment rather than a punishment. | Compensation for loss of earnings. |
| fine | Money paid as a penalty to the state. This one punishes. | The company was fined two million pounds. |
| injunction | A court order to do something, or more often to stop. Breaking one is contempt, not a new offence. | An injunction preventing publication. |
| litigation | The process of taking a dispute through the courts. Uncountable, and often the thing parties want to avoid. | Years of costly litigation. |
The distinction that costs marks is compensation against fine: compensation flows to the person harmed and restores them, a fine flows to the state and punishes. A single case can produce both. And settlement is not a verdict — settling is precisely how a party avoids one, which is why it is usually paired with no admission of liability.
Collocations that sound natural
Legal nouns take a very small set of verbs, and the courtroom report is one of the most formulaic registers in English. Learning the frame is worth more here than learning the word alone.
allegation
make an allegationdeny the allegationsface allegations ofunsubstantiated allegations
You make or face allegations rather than say them, and the thing alleged follows of. Journalists lean on the word because it reports an accusation without endorsing it.
bail
grant bailrefuse bailreleased on bailbreach bail conditions
The court grants or refuses it, the accused is released on it — note the preposition — and conditions are breached, never broken, in this register.
breach
a breach of contractin breach ofa serious breachbreach the terms
Noun and verb both. As a noun it takes of plus the thing violated; the fixed adverbial in breach of does the work of an adjective: the company was in breach of its licence.
injunction
seek an injunctiongrant an injunctionan interim injunctionlift the injunction
Parties seek or apply for one and the court grants or lifts it. Interim means it holds only until a fuller hearing.
perjury
commit perjurycharged with perjuryunder oath
Only commit — it is one of the crimes English treats as a thing you do rather than a state you are in. It applies only to false evidence given under oath, which is what separates it from ordinary lying.
appeal
lodge an appealappeal against a convictionthe appeal was dismissedgrounds for appeal
British English keeps against: you appeal against a sentence. American English drops it and treats the decision as a direct object. Appeals are lodged or filed, then allowed or dismissed.
Formal, neutral or informal?
Two things position the words on this page: which side of the Atlantic they belong to, and how much accusation they carry. Both matter in an exam answer about crime, and one of them matters legally.
- attorneyAmericanThe general American word for a lawyer. British English says solicitor for the one who advises and barrister for the one who argues in court, with lawyer covering both. In Britain attorney survives mainly in power of attorney and Attorney General.
- misdemeanourBritish spelling, American lawSpelled -our in Britain and -or in the United States, but the legal category it names is American. A British writer using it technically is describing an American case; used loosely it just means a minor misdeed.
- legal aidNeutral · institutionalState funding for those who cannot pay for representation. Two words, uncountable, no article: he qualified for legal aid. It is a policy term, so it carries the assumptions of whichever country’s system you are describing.
- defamationFormal · preciseThe umbrella term for damaging someone’s reputation, covering written libel and spoken slander. Because these are things you can be sued for, the word should not be used loosely of criticism you merely dislike.
- allegationNeutral · deliberatelyBuilt to be non-committal. Reporting a claim as an allegation is the standard way of describing an accusation without asserting it, and dropping the word turns a report into a statement of fact.
- vindicateFormal · approvingTo clear someone, or to prove a position right. Stronger than acquit: an acquittal means the case was not proved, while being vindicated means you were right all along. Courts acquit; history vindicates.
- interrogateHarsh · and now academicTo question formally and persistently. Harsher than question or interview, which is why police forces avoid it in their own descriptions. It has a second life in academic writing meaning to examine an idea closely — interrogate the assumption — where some readers find it a cliché.
- unlawfulFormal · narrower than illegalThe formal counterpart of illegal, and preferred where an act breaks a rule without being a crime: unlawful dismissal, unlawful killing. A coroner returns a verdict of unlawful killing precisely because it identifies no criminal.
Sentences to try
Four frames tracking one case. Check who is doing what in each sentence.
- The defendant pleaded not guilty to all charges.
- The prosecution called three witnesses to give testimony.
- The jury returned a verdict and the judge acquitted him.
- The company was held liable for the damage under the statute.
Questions about law & justice vocabulary
What is the difference between a defendant and a plaintiff?
The defendant is the party being accused or sued — the one defending against the case. The party bringing a civil case is the plaintiff in American English and the claimant in modern British English, which changed the term in 1999. In a criminal case the accusing side is not an individual at all but the state, referred to as the prosecution or, in Britain, the Crown. The defendant keeps the same name in both criminal and civil proceedings.
Is it "pleaded guilty" or "pled guilty"?
Pleaded is the standard form in British English and in formal legal writing everywhere: She pleaded guilty to two counts. Pled is widely used in American English, especially in journalism, and is standard in Scottish legal usage. Neither is wrong, but on a British English course pleaded is the form to produce. Note the fixed collocations that go with it: you plead guilty, plead not guilty, or enter a plea.
What is the difference between legal and legitimate?
Legal means allowed by law: It is legal to park here after six. Legitimate means justified, reasonable or properly authorised, and it often has nothing to do with legislation: a legitimate question, a legitimate government, a legitimate business. Something can be legal but not legitimate, and vice versa, which is exactly why both words exist. Their negatives keep the split: illegal breaks the law, while illegitimate lacks proper justification or authority.