Law Dictionary Definitions

brand.Trademarks. A name or symbol used by a seller or manufacturer to identify goods or services and to distinguish them from competitors’ goods or services; the term used colloquially in business and industry to refer to a corporate or product name, a business image, or a mark, regardless of whether it may legally qualify as…

branch. 1. An offshoot, lateral extension, or division of an institution <the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government>.2. A line of familial descent stemming from a common ancestor <the Taylor branch of the Bradshaw family>. — Also termed stock.[Blacks Law 8th]

brake. See DUKE OF EXETER’S DAUGHTER. [Blacks Law 8th]

brain death.See DEATH.[Blacks Law 8th]

Brady material. Information or evidence that is favorable to a criminal defendant’s case and that the prosecution has a duty to disclose. • The prosecution’s withholding of such information violates the defendant’s due-process rights. Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 83 S.Ct. 1194 (1963). See exculpatory evidence under EVIDENCE. Cf. JENCKS MATERIAL. [Cases: Constitutional Law …

Brady Act.A federal law establishing a national system for quickly checking the background of a prospective handgun purchaser. • The formal name of the law is the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act. The U.S. Supreme Court held unconstitutional the law’s interim provision, which required chief state law-enforcement officers (usu. sheriffs) to conduct background checks until…

Bracton. The common title of one of the earliest books of English law, De Legibus et Consuetudinibus Angliae (ca. 1250). • Henry of Bratton (also known as Bracton), a judge of the Court of King’s Bench and of Assize, is credited with writing the work, though he may have merely revised an earlier version. “Bracton’s…

bracket system.Tax law. A system for collecting a sales tax based on an index providing for a graduated payment depending on the purchase price of the item, the purpose being fourfold: (1) to avoid having the seller collect a tax less than one cent; (2) to avoid requiring the state to figure the exact amount…

bracket creep.The process by which inflation or increased income pushes individuals into higher tax brackets.[Blacks Law 8th]

bracery.Hist. 1. The offense of selling pretended rights or title to land. • This practice was outlawed by statute of 32 Hen. 8, ch. 9. 2.EMBRACERY.[Blacks Law 8th]