Legal Definitions - extract

An extract can be understood in two primary ways in a legal context:

As a Noun:

An extract refers to a specific portion, segment, or selection taken from a larger document, record, or body of information. It is a part that has been drawn out or copied from its original source.

• Example 1 (From a legal document): During a court hearing, a lawyer might read an extract from a witness's deposition transcript to highlight a specific statement made under oath.

  Explanation: Here, the lawyer has selected and presented a particular section of the longer deposition transcript, making it an "extract" of the full document.

• Example 2 (From a contract): Before signing a complex business agreement, a party might request an extract of only the indemnification clauses to have their specialist attorney review those specific terms in detail.

  Explanation: This illustrates an "extract" as a particular segment (the indemnification clauses) pulled out from the entire contract for focused examination.

As a Verb:

To extract means to draw out, remove, or obtain something from a larger source, often through a process of selection, effort, or careful retrieval.

• Example 1 (Information retrieval): A legal researcher might need to extract all relevant case precedents involving intellectual property disputes from a vast online legal database.

  Explanation: This describes the act of actively searching for and pulling out specific, pertinent information (case precedents) from a large collection of data.

• Example 2 (Identifying a principle): A judge, when writing an opinion, must carefully extract the core legal reasoning and applicable statutes from various prior rulings to justify their current decision.

  Explanation: Here, "extract" refers to the intellectual process of identifying and articulating the essential legal principles from a body of complex judicial decisions.

• Example 3 (Physical removal): In a forensic investigation, technicians might extract digital data from a damaged hard drive to recover potential evidence related to a cybercrime.

  Explanation: This demonstrates the technical process of retrieving specific information (digital data) from a physical storage device, often requiring specialized tools and effort.