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procurement of breach of contract See TORTIOUS INTERFERENCE WITH CONTRACTUAL RELATIONS.

procurer One who induces or prevails upon another to do something, esp. to engage in an illicit sexual act. See PIMP.

procuring agent See AGENT (2).

procuring agent A person who obtains drugs on behalf of another person and delivers the drugs to that person. In criminal-defense theory, the procuring agent does not sell, barter, exchange, or make a gift of the drugs to the other person because the drugs already belong to that person, who merely employs the agent to pick up and deliver them.

procuring an abortion See ABORTION.

procuring cause See CAUSE (1).

procuring cause 1. See proximate cause (2). 2. The efforts of the agent or broker who effects the sale of realty and who is therefore entitled to a commission.

procuring miscarriage See ABORTION (I).

prodigal (prod-a-gal), n. Civil law. A person whose affairs are managed by a curator because of the person s wasteful spending or other bad conduct. In Roman law, the agnatic family of a prodigal (prodigus) or spendthrift could result in that person s being prohibited from engaging in certain legal transactions, and the person s estate being put in the charge ofa curator. See cura prodigi under CURA.

prodigus (prod-a-gas), n. & adj. [Latin "a spendthrift"] Roman law. See PRODIGAL.

prodition (pra-dish-an). Archaic. Treason; treachery.

proditor (prod-i-tar), n. Roman law. 1. A traitor. 2. An informer.

proditorie (proh-di-tor-ee-ee), adv. [Latin] Treasonably. This word formerly appeared in a treason indictment.

produce (proh-doos), n. The product of natural growth, labor, or capital; esp., agricultural products

produce (pra-doos), vb. 1. To bring into existence; to create. 2. To provide (a document, witness, etc.) in response to subpoena or discovery request. 3. To yield (as revenue). 4. To bring (oil, etc.) to the surface of the earth.

producent (pra-d[y]oo-sant), . Eccles. law. The party calling a witness.

producer See INSURANCE AGENT.

producer price index An index of wholesale price changes, issued monthly by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Formerly also termed wholesale price index. Cf. CONSUMER PRICE INDEX.

producing cause See proximate cause under CAUSE (1).

product Something that is distributed commercially for use or consumption and that is usu. (1) tangible personal property, (2) the result of fabrication or processing, and (3) an item that has passed through a chain of commercial distribution before ultimate use or consumption. See ARTICLE OF MANUFACTGRE; PRODUCTS LIABILITY.

product claim See PATENT CLAIM.

product claim A patent claim that covers the structure, apparatus, or composition of a product.

product defect See DEFECT.

product defect An imperfection in a product that has a manufacturing defect or design defect, or is faulty because ofinadequate instructions or warnings. See manufacturing defect; design defect; marketing defect.

product disparagement See TRADE DISPARAGEMENT.

product liability See PRODUCTS LIABILITY.

product mark See product trademark under TRADEMARK.

product market See MARKET.

product rule A means of calculating the likelihood that a series of independent events will occur jointly, done by multiplying together the probability of each event.

product test See DURHAM RULE.

product trademark See TRADEMARK.

product-by-process claim See PATENT CLAIM.

product-by-process claim A patent claim defining a product through the process by which it is made. The product-by-process claim is most often used to define new chemical compounds, such as drugs.

product-extension merger See MERGER.

productio sectae (pra-dak-shee-oh sek-tee). [Latin] See PRODUCTION OF SUIT.

production burden See BURDEN OF PRODUCTION.

production casing Wellbore pipe through which oil and gas is produced .o Production casing is the last pipe set in the hole.

production casing See CASING.

production for commerce The production of goods that an employer intends for interstate commerce. This is one criterion by which an employer may be subject to the Fair Labor Standards Act.

production of suit Common-law pleading. The plaintiff s burden to produce evidence to confirm the allegations made in the declaration.

production payment Oil & gas. A share of oil-and-gas production from property, free of the costs of production, ending when an agreed sum has been paid.

product-liability loss See LOSS.

product-line exception An exception from the usual rule that a successor corporation is not liable for the acts of its predecessor, arising when the successor acquired all the predecessor s assets, held itself out as a continuation of the predecessor by producing the same product line under the same or a similar name, and benefited from the predecessor s goodwill.

products liability 1. A manufacturer s or seller s tort liability for any damages or injuries suffered by a buyer, user, or bystander as a result of a defective product. Products liability can be based on a theory of negligence, strict liability, or breach of warranty. 2. The legal theory by which liability is imposed on the manufacturer or seller of a defective product. 3. The field of law dealing with this theory. Also termed product liability; (spedf.) manufacturer s liability. See LIABILITY. - productsliability, adj. "The law of products liability is that body of common and statutory law permitting money reparation for substandard conduct of others resulting in product•related injury to the injured party s person or property. Resistance to the description of products liability as a doctrine having receded, there is today a guiding tenet in the law of product-related injury that is the distillate of seventy years of decisional law. The birth of the doctrine can be dated at 1916, the publication of the immensely influential decision in MacPherson v. Buick Motor Co. [217 N.Y. 382, 111 N.E. 1050 (1916)]. in which the New York Court of Appeals held that the manufacturer of any product capable of serious harm if incautiously made owed a duty of care in the design, inspection, and fabrication of the product, a duty owed not only to the immediate purchaser but to all persons who might foreseeably come into contact with the product. Fol lowing MacPherson, the doctrine as formed by decisions of the ensuing decades is that a buyer, user, consumer or bystander in proximity to an unreasonably dangerous product, and who is injured in person or in property by its dangerous propensities, may recover in damages from the manufacturer or intermediate seller." 1 M. Stuart Madden, Products Liability § 1.1, at 1-2 (2d ed. 1988).

products-liability action A lawsuit brought against a manufacturer, seller, or lessor of a product regardless of the substantive legal theory or theories upon which the lawsuit is brought - for personal injury, death, or property damage caused by the manufacture, construction, design, formulation, installation, preparation, or assembly of a product. Also termed product-liability action.

products-liability insurance An agreement to indemnify a manufacturer, supplier, or retailer for a loss arising from the insureds liability to a user who is harmed by any product manufactured or sold by the insured.

products-liability insurance See INSURANCE.

profane adj. (Of speech or conduct) irreverent to something held sacred.

profanity Obscene, vulgar, or insulting language; BLASPHEMY. Profanity is distinguished from mere vulgarity and obscenity by the additional element of irreverence toward or mistreatment of something sacred.

profectitium peculium (pro-fek-tish-ee-am pa-kyoo-lee-am). Roman law. Property that a father allowed a son in patria potestas to manage and use while the father retained ownership. Also written peculium profectitium.

profectitius (proh-fek-tish-ee-as). [Latin) That which descends from an ancestor.

profer (proh-far). 1. An offer or proffer. 2. A return made by a sheriff of an account into the Exchequer.

proferens (proh-fer-enz). [Latin] The party that proposes a contract or a condition in a contract. PI. proferentes (proh-fa-ren-teez).

profert (proh-fart). (I8c) Common-law pleading. A declaration on the record stating that a party produces in court the deed or other instrument relied on in the pleading.

profert in curia (proh-fart in kyoor-ee-a). [Law Latin] He produces in court. In common-law pleading, this phrase was used in a declaration asserting that the plaintiff was ready to produce, or had produced, the deed or other instrument on which the action was founded.

profess vb. To declare openly and freely; to confess.

professio juris (pra-fes[h)-ee-oh joor-is). [Latin] A recognition of the right of a contracting party to stipulate the law that will govern the contract.

profession 1. A vocation requiring advanced education and training; esp., one of the three traditionallearned professions - law, medicine, and the ministry. "Learned professions are characterized by the need of unusual learning, the existence of confidential relations, may climb, to the professional plane: Commonwealth v. Brown, 20 N.E.2d 478, 481 (Mass. 1939). 2. Collectively, the members of such a vocation.

professional A person who belongs to a learned profession or whose occupation requires a high level of training and proficiency.

professional association See ASSOCIATION.

professional association 1. A group of professionals organized to practice their profession together. though not necessarily in corporate or partnership form. 2. A group ofprofeSSionals organized for education, social activity. or lobbying, such as a bar association. - Abbr. P.A.

professional corporation See CORPORATION.

professional corporation A corporation providing services of a type requiring a professional license. A professional corporation may be made up of architects, accountants, lawyers, physicians, veterinarians, or the like. - Abbr. P.C.

professional goodwill See personal goodwill.

professional goodwill See personal goodwill under GOODWILL.

professional negligence See MALPRACTICE.

professional relationship See RELATIONSHIP.

professional relationship An association that involves one person s reliance on the other person specialized training. Examples include one s relationship with a lawyer, doctor, insurer, banker, and the like.

professionalism The practice of a learned art in a characteristically methodical, courteous, and ethical manner.

proffer (prof-ar), vb. To offer or tender (something, esp. evidence) for immediate acceptance. - proffer, n.

proffered evidence See EVIDE:NCE.

proffered evidence (prof-ard). 1. Evidence that is offered to the court to obtain a ruling on its admissibility. 2. Evidence whose admissibility depends on the existence or nonexistence of a preliminary fact.

proficua (pra-fik-yoo-a). [Law Latin]. Profits; esp., the profits of an estate in land.

profiling 1. See RACIAL PROFILING. 2. See LINGUISTIC PROFILING.

profit 1. The excess of revenues over expenditures in a business transaction; GAIN (2). Cf. EARNINGS; INCOME.

profit and loss account A transfer account of all income and expense accounts, closed into the retained earnings of a corporation or the account of a partnership.

profit appendant (a-pen-dant). A profit annexed to land by operation of law; esp., a common of pasture. See common appendant under COMMON.

profit appurtenant (a-part-an-ant). A profit, whether several or in common, attached to land, for the benefit of certain other identified land, by the act of the parties (as by grant or by prescription). See common appurtenant under COMMON.

profit in gross (in grohs). A profit exercisable by the owner independently of his or her ownership of land. See common in gross under COMMON. "[A] right to take fish from a canal without stint (i.e., without limit) can exist as a profit in gross, but not, as already seen, as a profit appurtenant. A profit in gross is an interest in land which will pass under the owner s will or intestacy or can be sold or dealt with in any of the usual ways." Robert E. Megarry & M.P. Thompson, A Manual of the Law of Real Property 377 (6th ed. 1993).

profit insurance Insurance that reimburses the insured for profits lost because of a specified peril.

profit insurance See INSURANCE.

profit it prendre (a prawn-dra or ah prahn-dar). [Law French "profit to take"] (usu. pI.). A right or privilege to go on another s land and take away something of value from its soil or from the products of its soil (as by mining, logging, or hunting). Also termed right of common. PI. profits it prendre. Cf. EASEMENT. "A profit aprendre has been described as a right to take something off another person s land: This is too wide; the thing taken must be something taken out of the soil, Le., it must be either the soil, the natural produce thereof, or the wild animals existing on it; and the thing taken must at the time of taking be susceptible of ownership, A right to hawk, hunt, fish, and fowl may thus exist as a profit, for this gives the right to take creatures living on the soil which, when killed, are capable of being owned. But a right to take water from a spring or a pump, or the right to water cattle at a pond. may be an easement but cannot be a profit; for the water, when taken, was not owned by anyone nor was it part of the soil." Robert E. Megarry & M.P. Thompson, A Manual of the Law of Real Property 375-76 (6th ed. 1993).

profit margin 1. The difference between the cost of something and the price for which it is sold. 2. The ratio, expressed as a percentage, between this difference and the selling price. For example, a widget costing a retailer $10 and selling for $15 has a profit margin of 33% ($5 difference divided by $15 selling price). Often shortened to margin.

profit pur cause de vicinage (par kawz da vis-a-nij). A profit arising when the holders of adjoining commons have allowed their cattle to stray on each other s lands. A claim for this profit fails if one of the commoners fences off the common or has in the past driven off the other commoner s cattle.

profit-and-Ioss account See ACCOUNT.

profit-and-Ioss statement See INCOME STATEMENT.

profiteering The taking advantage of unusual or exceptional circumstances to make excessive profits, as in the selling of scarce goods at inflated prices during war.profiteer, vb.

profit-sharing plan An employee benefit plan that allows an employee to share in the company s profits. ERISA governs the administration of many profit -sharing plans, which provide for discretionary employer contributions and provide a definite predetermination formula for allocating the contributions to the plan among the participants. Contributions are frequently allocated in proportion to each participant s compensation. See EMPLOYEE BENEFIT PLAN; EMPLOYEE RETIREMENT INCOME SECURITY ACT.

profit-sharing plan See PROFIT-SHARING PLAN.

progener (proh-jee-nar). [Latin] A grandson-in-law.

progeny (proj-a-nee), n. pl. 1. Children or descendants; offspring <only one of their progeny attended law school>. 2. In a figurative sense, a line of precedents that follow a leading case <Erie and its progeny>.

prognosis (prog-noh-sis). 1. The process of forecasting the probable outcome ofa present medical condition (such as a disease). 2. The forecast of such an outcome. Cf, DIAGNOSIS.

program 1. An agenda for a meeting or a convention, listing the order of business and possibly including educational or social events. See AGENDA; business meeting under MEETING. 2. A speech or other presentation within a meeting offered for the assembly s information or for the members education or entertainment, but not for their formal consideration or action as a deliberative assembly.

program committee See COMMITTEE.

program committee The committee that .olans a convention's program, usu. including both its formal business and its educational and social events.

program trading A form of computerized securities trading that usu. involves buying or selling large amounts of stocks while simultaneously selling or buying index futures in offsetting amounts.

progressive lawyering See CAUSE LAWYERING.

progressive loss See LOSS.

progressive tax See TAX.

progressive tax 1. A tax structured so that the effective tax rate increases more than proportionately as the tax base increases, or so that an exemption remains flat or diminishes. With this type of tax, the percentage of income paid in taxes increases as the taxpayers income increases. Most income taxes are progressive, so that higher incomes are taxed at a higher rate. But a tax can be progressive without using graduated rates. Also termed graduated tax. Cf. regressive tax; flat tax. 2. See graduated tax.