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| failure of a professional person, as a physician or lawyer, to render proper services through reprehensible ignorance or negligence |
| the institution and carrying on of legal proceedings against a person; the body of officials by whom such proceedings are instituted and carried on |
affirmation
in law, a promise by a witness concerning testimony allowed in place of an oath to those who cannot, because of conscience, swear an oath. For example, members of the Society of Friends (Quakers), Jehovah's Witnesses, and other persons who have objections against taking an oath are allowed to make affirmation in any manner they may declare to be binding upon their consciences in confirmation of the truth of their testimony.
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