Relief (redirected from Reliefs)

Financial assistance provided to the indigent by the government. The redress, or benefit, given by a court to an individual who brings a legal action.

The relief sought in a lawsuit might, for example, be the return of property wrongfully taken by another, compensation for an injury in the form of damages, or enforcement of a contract.

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relief n. generic term for all types of benefits which an order or judgment of court can give a party to a lawsuit, including money award, injunction, return of property, property title, alimony, and dozens of other possibilities. (See: judgment)

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RELIEF, Eng. law. A relief was an incident to every feudal tenure, by way of fine or composition with the lord for taking up the estate which was lapsed or fallen in by the death of the last tenant. At one time the amount was arbitrary; but afterwards the relief of a knight's fee became fixed at one hundred shillings. 2 Bl. Com. 65.

RELIEF, practice. That assistance which a court of chancery will lend to a party to annul a contract tinctured with fraud, or where there has been a mistake or accident; courts of equity grant relief to all parties in cases where they have rights, ex aequo et bono, and modify and fashion that relief according to circumstances.