Concepts that apply broadly; check your own jurisdiction.
Attorneys are officers of the court with duties to both the court and the client, and statements of counsel are not evidence. Hiring a lawyer does not make an adult a ward of the court, and every person may represent himself or herself.
The DTCC and its nominee Cede & Co. hold legal title to most U.S. securities for the benefit of investors, whose rights UCC Article 8 protects. However, no one issues birth certificates, tickets or court judgments as securities, and the DTCC does not clear them.
The 1871 Act organized the District of Columbia as a municipal corporation, the Federal Reserve Act created the central bank, and the 1933 laws ended gold redemption. None of them reorganized the nation as a corporation, declared it bankrupt or made citizens collateral.
The Bill of Rights restrains government from infringing rights the people already hold, from free speech and religion to due process and jury trial. Through incorporation, most of its guarantees now bind the states as well as the federal government.
A depositor is the bank’s creditor, and silence can be acceptance in narrow circumstances set by contract law. Courts have held that banks are generally not fiduciaries of depositors and have no duty to answer notices or affidavits that create their own deadlines.
The Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, and the Supreme Court has held that debt labor is forbidden even when it began by agreement. The Fourteenth Amendment made national citizenship a status of the person, held alongside state citizenship.
A state is a body politic and artificial person with corporate capacities. Courts treat it as a government that legislates for everyone in its territory, not as a private corporation whose rules bind only those who join it.
Federal Reserve notes are obligations of the United States, and banks create deposits when they lend. The statutes cited for treating private loans and utility bills as federal obligations apply to federal agencies, counterfeiting law and Treasury debt.
A minor or a legally incapacitated adult placed under the protection of a court, usually with a guardian appointed to make decisions for him or her. A competent adult does not become a ward of the court by hiring a lawyer; the client keeps the right to direct the representation and may represent himself or herself.
Rights that cannot be surrendered or transferred, which the Declaration of Independence says people are “endowed by their Creator” with, “among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” The term is also spelled “inalienable.” Many are protected in the Bill of Rights and enforced through the courts.
Looking for a state's court rules instead? See procedures for all 50 states and D.C.