DILIGENCE

diligence. 1. A continual effort to accomplish something. 2. Care; caution; the attention and

care  required  from  a  person  in  a  given  situation.  •  The  Roman-law  equivalent is  diligentia.  See

“Care, or the absence of negligentia, is diligentia. The use of the word diligence in this sense

is obsolete in modern English, though it is still retained as an archaism of legal diction. In ordinary

usage, diligence is opposed to idleness, not to carelessness.” John Salmond, Jurisprudence 393 n.

(i) (Glanville L. Williams ed., 10th ed. 1947).

common diligence. 1. See due diligence (1).2. See ordinary diligence.

due  diligence.  1.  The  diligence  reasonably  expected  from,  and  ordinarily  exercised  by,  a

person  who  seeks  to  satisfy  a  legal  requirement  or  to  discharge  an  obligation.  —  Also  termed

reasonable  diligence;  common  diligence.  2.Corporations  &  securities.  A  prospective  buyer’s  or

broker’s  investigation  and  analysis  of  a  target  company,  a  piece  of  property,  or  a  newly  issued

security. • A failure to exercise due diligence may sometimes result in liability, as when a broker

recommends  a  security  without  first  investigating  it  adequately.  [Cases:  Securities  Regulation

25.21(4), 25.62(2). C.J.S. Securities Regulation §§ 87, 95.]

extraordinary  diligence.Extreme  care  that  a  person  of  unusual  prudence  exercises to  secure

rights or property.

great diligence.The diligence that a very prudent person exercises in handling his or her own

property like that at issue. — Also termed high diligence.

low diligence.See slight diligence.

necessary diligence.The diligence that a person is required to exercise to be legally protected.

ordinary  diligence.The  diligence  that  a  person  of  average  prudence  would  exercise  in

handling his or her own property like that at issue. — Also termed common diligence.

reasonable  diligence.  1.  A  fair  degree  of  diligence  expected  from  someone  of  ordinary

prudence under circumstances like those at issue. 2. See due diligence (1).

slight diligence.The diligence that a person of less than common prudence takes with his or

her own concerns. — Also termed low diligence.

special  diligence.The  diligence  expected  from  a  person  practicing  in  a  particular  field  of

specialty under circumstances like those at issue.

3.Patents.  Speed  and  perseverance  in  perfecting  an  invention.  •  Diligence  is  one  factor  in

deciding which of two or more independent inventors will be granted a patent: if the first inventor

cannot prove reasonable diligence in reducing the invention to practice, a later inventor may take

priority.  [Cases:  Patents    90(3).  C.J.S.  Patents  §  125.]  4.Scots  law.  A  court-issued  warrant  to

compel something, such as the attendance of a witness or the enforcement of an unpaid judgment

debt. 5.Scots law. Any legal process available to a creditor to seize a debtor’s property to compel

the debtor to answer an action for debt, to preserve the property as security for a judgment that the

creditor may obtain, or to liquidate the property in satisfaction of a judgment already obtained. •

Forms  of  diligence  include  adjudication,  arrestment,  inhibition,  poinding,  and  sequestration  for

rent.  Until  the  mid-20th  century,  a  debtor  could  also  be  imprisoned.  The  term  diligence  is  also

sometimes  used  to  denote  a  warrant that  may  be  granted  to  compel  a  witness’s attendance  or  to

compel production of documents. See EXECUTION(3).

DILIGENCE AGAINST THE HERITAGE

diligence against the  heritage.Scots law.  A  writ of execution allowing a creditor to proceed

against a debtor’s real property.[Blacks Law 8th]