In the modern language of the law there is still a substantial group of French words, which have remained the particular property of lawyers. These words and phrases of law French have never become “naturalized” in the manner of other loan words. They are probably used much less frequently than once was the custom, but they play an important role as technical terms and so constitute an active and highly distinctive part of the legal vocabulary. Examples of these terms are: 

These words and phrases are mostly of Old French and Anglo-Norman origin and would baffle the modern Frenchman no less than the modern Englishman. Thus, for instance, jeofail meant in Anglo-Norman “an oversight”, the acknowledgement of an error in pleading, from je faille, “I mistake”. Oyez is the imperative of the Anglo-Norman verb oyer, “to hear”. A puisne judge is one of junior status (Old French puis né) and the word has survived, with a change of spelling as well as meaning, in the English word puny. Voir dire could be taken to mean “to see him speak” in Modern French. But the law words voir dire (also spelled voire dire) carry their Old French meaning “to speak the truth”, the same meaning as Old French voir dit, which ended up in English and Modern French as verdict. 

French influence is also seen in numerous legal terms in which the adjective follows its noun: a word order unusual in English but customary in French. Examples include attorney general, body politic, court martial, freehold absolute, heir presumptive, issue male, letters patent, malice prepense (alongside its partial translation malice aforethought), proof demonstrative, proof positive, and many others.