interlocutory appeal - An appeal to an appellate court of a temporary or provisional order of a trial court. The appellate court is not required to hear the appeal.   

interrogatories - In the discovery phase of civil litigation, these written questions are submitted by one party to another party and must be answered in writing under oath.   

interstate compact - A contract between member states to supervise juveniles on probation or parole, and to return delinquent juveniles who have escaped or nondelinquent juveniles who have run away, from one state to another.   

intervention - A proceeding in a civil suit by which a third person is permitted by the court to join as a party to the suit.   

intestate - The status of a person who dies without leaving a will.   

irrelevant - Evidence not sufficiently related to the matter in issue.   

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judgment - The official decision of a court disposing of a case.   

jurisdiction - The legal authority of a court to hear a case or conduct other proceedings; power of the court over persons involved in a case and the subject matter of the case.   

jurisprudence - Formal study of the principles on which legal rules are based and the means by which judges guide their decision making.   

jury commissioner - An officer charged with the duty of selecting the names to be put into a jury wheel, or of drawing the panel of jurors for a particular term of court.   

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