noun
definition
In civil proceedings, the party responding to the complaint; one who is sued and called upon to make satisfaction for a wrong complained of by another.
definition
In criminal proceedings, the accused.
Examples of defendants in a Sentence
He energetically pressed the Panama prosecution, so much so that he was accused of having put wrongful pressure on the wife of one of the defendants in order to procure evidence.
Sometimes defendants' speeches passed into literature, e.g.
During these two years they were free from taxation, and were not allowed (except in certain cases) to appear in the law courts as plaintiffs or defendants.
The court will have power to order convicted defendants to repay some or all of the cost of their defense.
She had sued defendants responsible for all his exposure.
The defendants were poor smugglers from the Esthonian border marshes, who in the course of their ordinary avocations had carried bales of revolutionary tracts into Russia without troubling as to their contents.
They could sue and be sued in their own name, and although they were able to call in their lords as defendants when proceeded against, there was nothing in law to prevent them from appearing in their own right.
The message is clear from now on, defendants skipping bail will be dealt.
Documents cited by the EWG authors showing the complicity of major asbestos defendants and their insurers in the American asbestos epidemic are disturbing.
The defendants counterclaim substantial damages for alleged defects in what was supplied.
Kewell is also claiming an injunction restraining the defendants from repeating the allegedly defamatory views.
The Third and fourth defendants were the insurers of the cargo (" the insurers " ), both of which were Toronto-based companies.
The remaining defendants received similar fines and prison sentences of between one and four years.
A constable deposed to defendants standing on the footpath at a street corner for about ten minutes.
These defendants verbally threatened their victims and used racial epithets while chasing them through the streets of a Chicago, Illinois suburb.
Lawyers representing the other defendants told court Dukes ' report also exonerates their clients.
The Islamic Council claim that the defendants were in breach of the above law in that they vilified the Islamic faith.
Monsanto have already obtained an injunction against six named defendants.
Defense lawyers asked jurors to spare the defendants prison terms.
It ends with a plea of express malice against the first and second defendants.
The eight defendants in trial two were all charged with prison mutiny.
The defendants cannot rely on their own obstinacy to assert that mediation had no reasonable prospect of success.
None of the defendants were asked to enter a plea at their latest court hearing last Friday.
The proposals also recast principles enshrined in the Magna Carta by ending many defendants ' right to be tried by jury.
Without the payment in satisfaction function some defendants would make spurious, unsupported offers.
On the evidence, there is an indication that quite apart from the defendants, there were other subcontractors working on the site.
The Defendants ' case is succinctly and accurately summarized at A7, viz.
The case against the defendants had very substantial connections with the United States and was perfectly properly triable there.
The defendants agreed that each of them was bound to pay the tun, and they put themselves in mercy.
Nevertheless public confidence in the efficacy of the parliamentary system and in the honesty of politicians was seriously diminished by these unsavoury occurrences, which, in combination with the acquittal of all the defendants in the Banca Romana trial, and the abandonment of the proceedings against Giolitti, reinforced to an alarming degree the propaganda of the revolutionary parties.
There was no formal application by the defendants to resile from the admission contained in the 6 December 2004 letter.
All the defendants except Henry Haycock were found guilty of riotous assemblage and given prison sentences of between 14 days and 4 months.
While Lee, Newsted and Clark are no longer defendants, CBS and Burnett are still being named in the suit.
The family has also named his parents as defendants in the suit, claiming they are also legally responsible for their son's injuries.