Legal Definitions - JJ

JJ is an abbreviation commonly used in legal writing and citations to refer to multiple judges or justices on a court.

This shorthand is used to indicate that a decision, opinion, or action was rendered by more than one member of the judiciary, rather than a single individual.

• Example 1: In a complex corporate fraud trial, a special three-judge panel was assigned to oversee the proceedings. A legal news article might report, "The preliminary ruling issued by JJ. Miller, Chen, and Rodriguez set a precedent for future cases of this nature."

  Explanation: Here, "JJ." is used to efficiently refer to the three specific judges who collectively made the ruling in the trial court, indicating that the decision was a joint effort by multiple members of the bench.

• Example 2: When analyzing a significant appellate court decision, a law student might write in a research paper, "The majority opinion authored by JJ. Davies and Patel focused on the interpretation of the new environmental statute, while Justice Kim filed a separate concurrence."

  Explanation: In this context, "JJ." denotes multiple justices on an appellate court who joined together to write the main opinion, clearly identifying them as a group responsible for the court's judgment.