Legal Definitions - de minimis

The legal term de minimis refers to something that is so minor, trifling, or insignificant that the law will not concern itself with it. The underlying principle, often expressed as "de minimis non curat lex," means "the law does not concern itself with trifles."

Essentially, if an issue, violation, or impact is considered de minimis, it means it's too small in terms of value, importance, or severity to warrant legal attention or to trigger legal consequences. Courts and regulatory bodies often apply this concept to avoid wasting resources on trivial matters or to prevent disproportionate penalties for inconsequential actions.

Here are a few examples to illustrate the concept of de minimis:

• Copyright Infringement: Imagine a documentary filmmaker shooting a scene in a busy city square. In the background, barely visible on a distant billboard, is a tiny, blurry image of a copyrighted advertisement. If the filmmaker uses this footage in their documentary, the owner of the copyrighted advertisement might argue infringement. However, a court could rule that the use of the advertisement was de minimis because it was so small, incidental, and fleeting that it did not constitute a meaningful use of the copyrighted work and caused no harm to the copyright holder.

• Environmental Regulation: Consider a small factory that, during a routine cleaning, accidentally spills a few milliliters of a non-toxic, biodegradable cleaning solution onto the ground, which quickly evaporates without reaching any water source or causing any environmental damage. While environmental laws often have strict reporting requirements for spills, a regulatory agency might deem this particular incident de minimis. The quantity was so minuscule, and the substance so harmless, that it posed no actual threat to the environment, making formal enforcement action unnecessary.

• Property Boundary Dispute: Two neighbors discover, after a new survey, that one neighbor's garden shed slightly encroaches onto the other's property by a mere half-inch along one side. This tiny encroachment causes no practical inconvenience, blocks no access, and doesn't affect the use or value of the other neighbor's land. A court might consider this a de minimis encroachment, meaning it's too insignificant to require the shed to be moved, especially if the cost and effort of moving it would be disproportionate to the minimal impact.