La Belle Indifférence - Literally, "beautiful indifference." Seen in certain patients with conversion disorders who show an inappropriate lack of concern about their disabilities. labile Rapidly shifting (as applied to emotions); unstable.

LAAM - Levo-alpha-acetylmethadol. It is a synthetic opiate with a three day halflife which has been used instead of methadone in maintenance programs.

Iabile Affect - An affect type that indicates abnormal sudden rapid shifts in affect.

Language Production - What people say, sign, and write, as well as the processes they go through to produce these messages.

Language-Making Capacity - The innate guidelines or operating principles that children bring to the task of learning a language.

Lapsed Gift - A gift made in a will to a person who has died prior to the will-makers death.

Larceny - Obtaining property by fraud or deceit.

Latah - A culture specific syndrome of Southeast Asia involving startle-induced disorganization, hypersuggestibility, automatic obedience, and echopraxia.

Latent Content - In Freudian dream analysis, the hidden meaning of a dream.

Laudanum - A tincture of opium.

Law - The combination of those rules and principles of conduct promulgated by legislative authority, derived from court decisions and established by local custom.

Law Blank - A printed legal form available for preparing documents.

Law Clerk - In the United States, usually a law school student employed by a law firm to do research and other tasks. In the courts, a lawyer (or law school student) employed to do legal research.

Law of Common Fate - A law of grouping that states that elements moving in the same direction at the same rate are grouped together.

Law of Effect - A basic law of learning that states that the power of a stimulus to evoke a response is strengthened when the response is followed by a reward and weakened when it is not followed by a reward.

Law of Proximity - A law of grouping that states that the nearest, or most proximal, elements are grouped together.

Law of Similarity - A law of grouping that states that the most similar elements are grouped together.

Lawsuit - An action or proceeding in a civil court; term used for a suit or action between two private parties in a court of law.

LD50 - Lethal dose in 50% of the sample.

Leadership - Leadership involves a set of personal attributes, skill competencies, and leadership intuition. The five core attributes that define leadership include: a) vision, b) influencing others to act, c) teamwork/collaboration, d) problem-solving capacity, and e) creating positive change.

Leading Question - A question that suggests the answer desired of the witness. A party generally may not ask one's own witness leading questions. Leading questions may be asked only of hostile witnesses and on cross-examination.

LEAP - (Learning, Earning, and Parenting Program) An Ohio Works First program that permits a participant who is under age 18 or 18 and a parent or pregnant to earn an incentive payment by satisfying school attendance requirements.

Learned Helplessness - A condition in which a person attempts to establish and maintain contact with another by adopting a helpless, powerless stance.

Learnfare - An Ohio Works First component that counties may choose to implement under which certain participants age 6 to 19 must satisfy school attendance requirements in order to avoid a sanction and possibly earn an incentive.

Learning - A process based on experience that results in a relatively permanent change in behavior or behavioral potential.

Learning-Performance Distinction - The difference between what has been learned and what is expressed in overt behavior.

Lease - A legal agreement to lend/hire something to a third party.

Legal Aid - Professional legal services available usually to persons or organizations unable to afford such services.

Legal Custody - A legal status, generally intended to be permanent, that vests in a custodian the rights and responsibilities to have physical care and control of a child, to determine where and with whom the child is to live, to protect, train, and discipline the child, and to provide the child with food, shelter, education, and medical care, all subject to any residual parental rights, privileges, and responsibilities.

Legal Father - Man recognized, by law, as the child's male parent.

Legal Process - A formal paper that is legally valid; something issuing from the court, usually a command such as a writ or mandate.

Legal Rights Service - the state agency created to protect and advocate for the rights of persons with mental illness, mental retardation, or developmental disabilities and other disabled persons in relation to issues of detention and institutionalization; contains an ombudsperson section that responds to complaints regarding any act that adversely affects a person's health, safety, welfare, or civil or human rights.

Legal Texts - Books that cover specific areas of the law, usually dealing with a single topic.

Legislation - The act of giving or enacting laws; the power to make laws via legislation in contrast to court-made laws.

Legitimate - That which is legal, lawful, recognized by law or according to law.

Lemon Laws - Laws that require manufactures to repair defective cars

Leniency - Recommendation for a sentence less than the maximum allowed.

Lesions - Injuries to or destruction of brain tissue.

Lessee - The person who hires something from a lessor

Lessor - The person who leases something

Lethologica - Temporary inability to remember a proper noun or name.

Letters of Administration - Legal document issued by a court that shows an administrator's legal right to take control of assets in the deceased person's name.

Letters Testamentary - Legal document issued by a court that shows an executor's legal right to take control of assets in the deceased person's name.

Levallorphan - A narcotic antagonist.

Levels-of-Processing Theory - A theory that suggests that the deeper the level at which information was processed, the more likely it is to be retained in memory.

Levo-Dromoran - This is basically pure levorphanol in pill or injectable form.

Levorphanol - A long acting synthetic opiate with fewer side effects than morphine.

Liability - A duty or obligation for which you’re a legally responsible

Liable - Legally responsible.

Libel - Published defamation which tends to injure a person's reputation.

Libido - The psychic energy that drives individuals toward sensual pleasures of all types, especially sexual ones.

Licensing Boards - State agencies created to regulate the issuance of licenses, i.e., to contractors, cosmetologists, realtors, etc.

Lien - Legal claim upon property to prevent sale or transfer until a debt is satisfied.

Life-Change Units - (LCUs) In stress research, the measure of the stress levels of different types of change experienced during a given period.

Ligand - Any chemical that binds to a receptor. Ligands may be agonists or antagonists.

Lightness Constancy - The tendency to perceive the whiteness, grayness, or blackness of objects as constant across changing levels of illumination.

Limbic System - The region of the brain that regulates emotional behavior, basic motivational urges, and memory, as well as major physiological functions.

Limited Jurisdiction - Refers to courts that are limited in the types of criminal and civil cases they may hear. For example, traffic violations generally are heard by limited jurisdiction courts.

Limited Liability Company - is a business that has shareholders who are limited in liability to the contribution of the fully paid up share

Liquidated Claim - A creditor's claim for a fixed amount of money.

Liquidation - The sale of a debtor's property with the proceeds to be used for the benefit of creditors.

Lis Pendens - A pending suit.

Litigant - A party to a lawsuit.

Litigation - A lawsuit; a legal action, including all proceedings therein.

Living Ttrust - A trust set up and in effect during the lifetime of the grantor. (Also called inter vivos trust.)

Living Will - Is a legal document that sets out a person’s wishes should they become incapacitated

Localization of Function - A principal of brain organization that states that specific places (circuits) in the brain carry out specific functions.

Location of Parent - The act of determining the whereabouts of a parent and/or his or her assets.

Locus Coeruleus - A small area in the brain stem containing norepinephrine neurons that is considered to be a key brain center for anxiety and fear.

Lomotil - An antidiarrhetic containing the synthetic opiate diphenoxylate.

Long Term Memory - Enduring memories about things, places, and events.

Long-Arm Jurisdiction - The legal authority by which courts and judicial officers can, for limited purposes, exercise authority over a person who resides in another state.

Longitudinal Design - A research design in which the same participants are observed repeatedly, sometimes over many years.

Long-Term Effects - The effects seen when a drug is used repeatedly over weeks, months, or years. These effects may outlast drug use.

Long-Term Memory - The final phase of memory in which information storage may last from hours to a lifetime.

Long-Term Memory Circuit - The brain circuit, including the cerebral cortex and hippocampus, which enables the brain to lay down and store memories in the cortex.

Loose-Leaf Services - Loose-leaf replacement pages provided by a publisher in areas of the law where changes occur at a rapid rate.

Loosening of Associations - A disturbance of thinking shown by speech in which ideas shift from one subject to another that is unrelated or minimally related to the first. Statements that lack a meaningful relationship may be juxtaposed, or speech may shift suddenly from one frame of reference to another. The speaker gives no indication of being aware of the disconnectedness, contradictions, or illogicality of speech.

Loperamide - An non-euphoric opioid that can be used in detox.

Lorfan - Levallorphan.

Loudness - A perceptual dimension of sound influenced by the amplitude of a sound wave; sound waves with large amplitudes are generally experienced as loud and those with small amplitudes as soft.

LSD - A hallucinogenic drug that acts on the serotonin receptor.

Lucid Dreaming - The theory that conscious awareness of dreaming is a learnable skill that enables dreamers to control the direction and content of their dreams.

Lump Sum - Usually a bonus check, court settlement, or any money received by the Obligor over $150.00, but is not a regular paycheck.

Lump Sum Intercept - An amount of money to be paid to an employee, but interrupted by a CSEA to be applied to support and/or support arrears.

Lump Sum Judgment - A court may reduce a child support or spousal support arrearage to a lump-sum judgment. Once a lump-sum judgment has been obtained it may be enforced either by obtaining a lien or by using the income withholding enforcement tools.

Lump-Sum Payment Collection - The collection of a lump sum, such as a bonus, that is payable to a person who is in default or owes an arrearage under a support order.