Glossary
Legal Secretary Terms & Vocabulary
15 essential legal secretary terms with plain-English definitions: the vocabulary you’ll hear in training and on day one.
Key legal secretary vocabulary
These 15 terms come up constantly in legal secretary training, on the job and in interviews. Knowing them helps you follow instructions, document accurately and sound prepared.
- Bates numbering
- Page numbering for documents.
- Billable hour
- Time charged to clients.
- Caption
- Case heading.
- Certificate of service
- Proof documents were sent.
- Conflict check
- Checking for conflicts of interest.
- Deposition
- Sworn testimony out of court.
- Docket
- Court case calendar.
- E-filing
- Filing documents online.
- Exhibit
- Evidence document.
- Motion
- Request to the court.
- Notary
- Official witness.
- Pleading
- Formal court document.
- Privileged
- Protected from disclosure.
- Retainer
- Advance payment.
- Statute of limitations
- Deadline to sue.
Practice these terms
Test yourself with the free Legal Secretary practice test: it includes vocabulary questions built from this list. For a complete course, see Legal Secretary training.
Browse terms from every career in our career glossary.