Severance
In legal terms, severance can refer to one of three issues:
- When used in reference to a legal action, it means to divide the issues involved and address them individually in separate trials or procedures. In a criminal case in which multiple defendants are accused of a single crime (such as a bank robbery or "gang rape"), the judge may order a separate trial for each of the accused. Likewise, when a defendant is up on multiple charges related to a single crime (such as murdering a store clerk in the course of an armed robbery), the judge may order him tried separately for each criminal act. In the case of a civil suit, the judge may decide that the negligence aspect of the case be tried separately from the trial determining damages. This is done for cases in which a decision on one issue may spare the need to hear another, related issue.
- In real estate transactions, severance is the act of separating a piece of personal property from real property, i.e., removal of a built-in dishwasher from a kitchen prior to the sale of a house, or the disassembly and removal of a garden shed from the backyard of a residential lot.
- In employment issues, a severance package is any combination of extra pay, stock options, or other benefits offered to an employee under a contract arrangement to encourage him/her to resign or retire before the terms of the contract expire. In this way, a company shields itself from liability for wrongful termination.
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