Family Law Glossary | R

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Range of Value: The range, or confidence interval, in which the final estimate of a property's value may lie.

Real Estate: Physical land and appurtenances affixed to the land: land.

Real Property: All interests, benefits, and rights inherent in the ownership of physical real estate.

Rebuttal: An introduction of evidence in response to a matter raised by the opposing party.

Reciprocity: The process of cooperation between states and countries to establish and enforce child support orders. Laws and court orders of each jurisdiction are recognized and enforced.

Reconciliation: Resuming the martial relationship.

Record: All of the testimony and evidence that is used in court to decide a case. What is on record is what the Judge will use to make his or her decision.

Recross: The second round of cross - examination that occurs after redirect in a trial.

Redirect: The second round of direct examination that occurs in the trial after cross-examination.

Registry: The entity through which the court receives and disburses money, as in child support payments.

Rehabilitative Alimony: Alimony intended to help the ex-spouse become financial self sufficient.

Reimbursement: A fixed amount stated in a judgment which would order the defendant to pay back to the government welfare which the government paid on behalf of the child.

Release: A document that frees up a person's right or claimed right to something. It is usually given in exchange for something else, typically another release or money.

Remand: The act of sending a case back to the judge to be retried because of a significant mistake made by the judge during the first trial.

Reproduction Cost: The estimated cost to construct, at current prices, a building with utility equivalent to the building being appraised, using modern materials and current standards, design, and layout, and quality of workmanship, and embodying all the subject's deficiencies, superadquacies, and obsolescence.

Request for Production: Part of the Discovery process. One attorney asks that the other side produce financial documents he or she feels are necessary to the case.

Residence: The place where a spouse lives.

Respondent: The defendant in a divorce.

Response: The formal document filed by the defendant (respondent) to answer the complaint or summons.

Restraining Order: A court order restricting a person's actions. They are sometimes issued by one spouse to try to deter the other spouse from committing violent acts.

Retainer: A fee paid to an attorney to work on a case.

Retainer Agreement: A written contract between lawyer and client delineating their responsibilities to each other.

Right of Survivorship: The right of joint owners to receive the other's share of property upon the death of the other owner.

Rules of Evidence: The rules that pertain to the deliverance of evidence in hearings or depositions.

RURESA - Revised Uniform Reciprocal Enforcement of Support Act, which facilitates interstate enforcement of support orders.