Law Dictionary Definitions

grand larceny.See LARCENY. [Blacks Law 8th]

grand-jury witness.See WITNESS. [Blacks Law 8th]

Grand Jury Clause.The clause of the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution requiring an indictment by a grand jury before a person can be tried for serious offenses. [Blacks Law 8th]

grand jury.A body of (often 23) people who are chosen to sit permanently for at least a month — and sometimes a year — and who, in ex parte proceedings, decide whether to issue indictments. See Fed. R. Crim. P. 6. • If the grand jury decides that evidence is strong enough to hold a…

grand juror.See JUROR. [Blacks Law 8th]

grand inquest.See INQUEST. [Blacks Law 8th]

grandfather clause. 1.Hist. A clause in the constitutions of some Southern states exempting from suffrage re-strictions the descendants of men who voted before the Civil War. 2. A provision that creates an exemption from the law’s effect for something that existed before the law’s effective date; specif., a statutory or regulatory clause that exempts a…

grandfather,vb. To cover (a person) with the benefits of a grandfather clause <the statute sets the drinking age at 21 but grandfathers those who are 18 or older on the statute’s effective date. [Blacks Law 8th]

grand distress.See DISTRESS. [Blacks Law 8th]

Grand Day.English law. 1.Hist. One of four holy days on which the courts are not in session. Each of the four court terms had a Grand Day. The four Grand Days were Candlemas Day (February 2), Ascension Day (March 25), St. John the Baptist Day (June 24), and All Saints’ Day (November 1). The Inns…