Fundamentals of Legal Forms
Legal forms, also known as model forms, are instruments used in judicial proceedings or legal transactions. They contain important details, appropriate technical terms, and any additional material necessary to make it accurate, arranged in a proper and systematic order, and conducive to the adaptation of the transaction's or judicial proceeding's particular circumstances. Practicing lawyers frequently utilize them as sample versions of standard legal documents. In a nutshell, these model instruments provide specific wording for formal legal papers, as well as other crucial elements.
Affidavits, acknowledgement and jurat, complaints in criminal cases, powers of attorney, special contracts and agreements, and gratuitous contracts and dispositions are examples of legal forms. Summons, appearance notices, subpoenas, warrants of arrest, and search warrants are examples of official notices that are also regarded as legal forms.
Importance
Although spoken or oral communication is considered more convenient in terms of spontaneity and speed of message delivery, written communication is still equally important as it allows for the possibility of recording and retrieving messages that verbal communications almost cannot.
For instance, not all statements, details, and pieces of information that we get will be stored in our long-term memory. Most only stay short-term, especially when there is no personal or emotional attachment to the information.
In the legal field, lawyers and other involved parties request a written agreement for their contracts or legal transactions in order to have a clear guide and evidence of the terms they have agreed. Similarly, court processes use forms as documentary requirements and evidence for these proceedings, with legally obligatory material contained therein.
Scope
Legal forms include both business forms and judicial forms.
Business Forms
These are used in creating, transferring, modifying, or limiting rights to legal as well as personal properties. They also include forms related to business contracts and transactions.
A business contract is an agreement between two or more parties in which each agrees to an exchange of money, commodities, or services. Business contracts include sales agreements and service agreements.
A business transaction, on the other hand, is an occurrence that involves the exchange of goods, money, or services between two or more people. Buying insurance from an insurer and selling items to a consumer for cash are two instances of business transactions.
Judicial Forms
Used in different kinds of pleadings, motions, affidavits, applications, petitions, and the like. Forms in criminal actions, civil actions (ordinary and special), and special proceedings are examples of these.
- civil action "one by which a party sues another for the enforcement or protection of a right, or the prevention or redress of a wrong"
- criminal action "one by which the State prosecutes a person for an act or omission punishable by law"
- special proceeding "a remedy by which a party seeks to establish a status, a right, or a particular fact"
(Definitions taken from the 1997 Rules of Civil Procedure, Rule 1, Section 3.)
Ordinary Civil Action
This is a type of judicial action in which one party sues another for the purpose of enforcing or protecting a right, or preventing or redressing a wrong, where the defendant has done or failed to do something that violates the plaintiff's rights. The primary goal is to compensate.
- Complaint a pleading alleging the plaintiff's cause or causes of action
- Answer a pleading in which a defending party sets forth his defenses
- Motion an application for relief other than by pleading
- Counterclaim any claim which a defending party may have against an opposing party
This is a type of judicial action in which a party sues another to enforce or protect a right or to prevent or correct a wrong. While such action is controlled by the rules that apply to ordinary civil proceedings, it is also subject to the unique rules that apply to civil actions.
- Interpleader a civil procedure that permits a plaintiff or defendant to file a case in order to compel the participation of two or more additional parties in dispute
- Mandamus requires or compels the respondent to perform a particular duty, which duty results from the official station of the respondent, or from operation of law
- Positive Remedy a special civil action whereby a court of jurisdiction commands an inferior tribunal, corp or person to perform a particular duty which the law requires to be done resulting from such office or trust
- Negative Remedy a preventive remedy whereby a person is directed to desist from unlawfully excluding another from the use/enjoyment of an office, trust or station
- Quo Warranto a writ of inquity that determines whether or not there is legal right to a public office, position, or franchise and may be instituted against an individual or entity, as the case may be
- Expropriation gives power to the sovereign state to authorize the taking of a property within jurisdiction for the public use and without the owner's consent
- Partition the separation, division, and assignment of an item held in common among people to whom it may belong
It is a type of judicial action by which a person accused of committing a crime is charged, brought to trial, and judged.
It is a remedy by which a party seeks to establish a status, a right, or a particular facts.
- Petition for Escheat An escheat is a proceeding whereby the real and personal property of a deceased person in the Philippines, who died without leaving any will or legal heirs, become the property of the state upon his death.
- Petition for Habeas Corpus Literally, "you have the body". In the Philippines, it is illegal to detain a person without going through proper legal proceedings. This is a legal recourse that a person may take to seek immediate release.
Other examples of special proceedings include Petition for Guardianship, Petition for Appointment, and Petition for Letters of Administration.