Also known as: relatives
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A person connected to another by blood or affinity. The connection arises through descent from a common ancestor or through marriage and extends to lineal and collateral kin as well as certain individuals treated as family by statute or rule.
Roberto Reyes sees his brother beaten severely by an assailant. Roberto immediately kills the assailant in a sudden rage. The killing occurred in the heat of passion after adequate provocation directed at a close relative, reducing what would otherwise be murder to voluntary manslaughter.
Roberto Reyes sues his cousin for breach of a family business contract. Roberto possesses nearly all the internal emails and shipping records while his cousin has almost none. The court weighs the parties' relative access to relevant information when deciding the proper scope and cost allocation of discovery.
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A lawyer prepares a will for her aunt leaving the lawyer a substantial bequest. Because the client is a relative, the lawyer may prepare the instrument without violating the prohibition on soliciting substantial gifts from clients.
An attorney mails a solicitation letter to the spouse of an accident victim within thirty days of the crash. The state may enforce the thirty-day ban on direct-mail solicitations to accident victims and their relatives without violating the First Amendment.
Rhea Reynolds seeks an injunction to stop a neighbor's ongoing noise nuisance after the neighbor disturbs her elderly relative who lives next door. The court compares the relative adequacy of an injunction to an award of damages when deciding whether equitable relief is appropriate.
After divorce, Ryan Roberts's will leaves property to his former spouse's cousin. The divorce revokes that disposition because the beneficiary is a relative of the former spouse under the governing instrument.
The term includes both. Blood relatives share a common ancestor. Relatives by affinity arise solely through marriage and include a spouse's blood or adopted relatives and the spouses of one's own blood or adopted relatives.
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A serious battery inflicted on the defendant or a close relative qualifies as adequate provocation. The defendant must actually have been provoked and an ordinary person would have been provoked as well.
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The prohibition on preparing an instrument giving the lawyer or a related person a substantial gift does not apply when the recipient is related to the client. Related persons expressly include a spouse, child, grandchild, parent, grandparent, or other relative.
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The divorce revokes any disposition or appointment of property made to a relative of the divorced individual's former spouse unless the governing instrument expressly provides otherwise.
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…Department of Foreign Affairs and appointed a principal officer to perform duties enjoined or intrusted to him by the President relative to correspondences, commissions, instructions, negotiations with public ministers, memorials and other matters respecting foreign affairs as the President should assign. Respecting the…