A question about the legal term in the subject line: I understand that a group of defendants can be charged with doing something “jointly” (viz. all of them) or “severally” (viz. some of them), but what does “or in the alternative” mean?
The context: "On or about the aforesaid date, the defendants, jointly, severally or in the alternative, designed, manufactured and sold a product to wit, a ------, which ----- was not reasonably fit, suitable or safe for its intended purposes.
Somewhat funny phrasing, but it seems to mean “any other conceivable possibility, in case it wasn’t jointly or severally.” Incidentally, good lawyers generally don’t use that kind of funny, old-fashioned “legalese” and law schools have been advising lawyers for years to move away from it, but old habits (and old form books) die hard.
Yeah, I’ve seen this a lot, it’s regular British legal characterisation, it just means, essentially, “in any other possible combination”.
Like “the doodad is copper, aluminum, nickel, or a combination thereof.”
Seems peculiar to me, because if you think about it, the alternative to all of them or some of them is…just one of them. Logically speaking, I mean.
Oh well. Thanks!
If lawyers didn’t use a funny code, they couldn’t get away with charging so much now, could they?
[quote=“rousseau”]Seems peculiar to me, because if you think about it, the alternative to all of them or some of them is…just one of them. Logically speaking, I mean.
Oh well. Thanks![/quote]
Actually, this is meant to cover any possible involvement by any of the parties at any stage of the alleged malfeasance (for lack of a better term), especially since the activity in question involves multiple parts, the design, manufacture, and selling phases, like A was part of the design effort, but left before manufacturing started, B had no involvement until the thing hit the market, etc.
The reason why this kind of language is important is so that it’s (at least a little) harder for individual defense attorneys to minimise their own client or clients’ involvement compared to that of the other co-defendants.