Auto Insurance Glossary – J Definitions

Joint and Several Liability

Liability which is both joint and several. If two or more parties have joint liability, then each party is liable for the full amount of the debt which they incur. If two or more parties have several liability, then each party is liable for their respective share of the debt. If two or more parties have joint and several liability, then any one party may be pursued for the full amount of the debt, leaving that party to either join the remaining parties in the action or to separately recover a share of the debt from those parties. Most states in the U.S. have a rule of joint and several liability for tort claims, and these are commonly applied in negligence actions involving road accidents.

Judgmental Immunity

A legal principle whereby a professional advisor (such as a lawyer) is not liable to a client for advice which is based on an error of judgment by the advisor, but which is nevertheless given by the advisor in good faith. However, judgmental immunity only holds if the advisor exercises a reasonable degree of care in providing the advice, as measured by the judgment which a reasonably competent advisor would make in the same circumstances. For example, if a defense lawyer in a tort claim gave advice to a client based on false evidence presented by the plaintiff, then the client would have no basis for a claim against the lawyer for the consequences of that advice, unless the lawyer should (and could) reasonably have established that the evidence was false.

Jurisdiction

The authority which a court has to decide a particular matter and to enforce any judgment. Jurisdiction can take several forms. Territorial jurisdiction is the authority which a court has with reference to geographical factors, such as where a particular offense occurred. Subject matter jurisdiction is the authority which a court has by nature of the particular case with which it is presented. Ancillary jurisdiction is the authority which a federal court has to decide a case which would ordinarily not be within its subject matter jurisdiction, but which is substantially related to another case which is within the court’s jurisdiction. Concurrent jurisdiction is the authority which two or more courts have to decide a particular case, such as a case which is able to be decided by either a state court or a federal court.