General Glossary Terms

Refers to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the federal agency that enforces employment laws related to Civil Rights (Title VII), age discrimination (ADEA), Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and Equal Pay Act (EPA).

The legal right of a city or state over all property within its boundaries, even private property, for the betterment of the public or the community. The process is also known as “condemnation” and the land taken by eminent domain must be acquired from the owner at reasonable compensation (fair market value) and meet requirements related to the degree of public use or community improvement that will be served.

The person named in a will to be in charge of finalizing a deceased person's financial affairs after death, taking care of property and assets and paying debts and taxes until the balance of the estate is transferred to the heirs, according to the will. Executors handle probate court proceedings or hire an attorney to do so on behalf of the estate. The executor will need to find all property, open estate bank accounts to receive checks or funds owed during the probate process, pay estate bills from the estate fund until it is finalized. If there is no will, the person who handles these details is appointed by the court and called an administrator, and will be required to determine who the deceased person’s heirs are, according to state law.

A legal “wiping the slate clean”. An Order of Expungement allows someone convicted of a crime to have negative legal information removed from their criminal record. Expungement may be granted by the original sentencing court and prosecutor following a motion for Expungement filed by an attorney. Depending on the state, certain criminal records may not be eligible to be expunged. These records ineligible for Expungement may be specific to the crime like domestic violence, gun related crimes, driving under the influence, and sexual predator or may be specific to the number of counts of crime in one guilty plea and/or repeated criminal activity. When deciding an Expungement order, situations related to the original crime (youth, first offense, etc.) and the current law-abiding behavior (or not) of the person originally convicted will be taken into consideration. Persons with an expunged record may legally report on an employment application that they have no convictions.