Speaker 0 00:00:00 No, that would just get weird and no, no one would, no one would
Speaker 1 00:00:03 Know that would be a loss of that would be a loss of the consortium, but not a loss of consortium.
Speaker 0 00:00:12 That's a very good distinction that that's more
Speaker 1 00:00:15 Of a grammatical distinction that makes a big, that the makes a big difference
Speaker 2 00:00:24 Present having business before the honor, the Supreme court of the United States to go here and
Speaker 0 00:00:30 Give their attention. Welcome to the us law essentials law and language podcast, the legal English podcast for non-native English speakers that helps you improve your English, listening, improve your legal English vocabulary and build your knowledge of American legal culture. Hi, this is Daniel. And before we begin today's episode, I wanna remind you that us law essentials offers online courses in legal English, and online courses in us law. Our courses are designed for international attorneys, students, translators, and bar candidates. If you have any questions, please contact Daniel
[email protected]. Also, please visit
[email protected] and join us on Facebook and LinkedIn. And now today's episode.
Speaker 1 00:01:23 Welcome to the us law essentials law and language podcast. I'm Steven Harrow it's
Speaker 0 00:01:30 And I'm Daniel Edelson.
Speaker 1 00:01:32 And today we continue our legal English vocabulary series, where we look at a word that has both a plain meaning and a legal English. Meaning Dan, it's your turn to choose today? What, what did you come up with?
Speaker 0 00:01:44 Right? Steve today's word is consortium consortium. Uh, C O N S O R T I U N. Consortium.
Speaker 1 00:01:58 Hey, you sound like you just, uh, won the, the national spelling bee
Speaker 0 00:02:03 <laugh> right, right, right. Okay. Well, do you know what it means?
Speaker 1 00:02:07 Yeah. Yeah. Consortium. I mean the, the root word is coor and that means to, to, to associate with, or to hang out with, so, uh, a consortium is like a group or an association.
Speaker 0 00:02:20 Hey, very good. So you win the, you win the national vocabulary definition contest, and, and you could have guessed it though, right? Just from the, the, the, just from those first two letters, the co like cooperate.
Speaker 1 00:02:34 Hmm. Yeah, yeah. Or Coate. Okay. <laugh>
Speaker 0 00:02:38 Coate. Oh, that's good. That's good. That's good. Um, cornerstone wait. No, that doesn't work. Okay. Um, so it has that regular meeting, like a consortium of universities, some sort of association, but it also has a special legal English, meaning
Speaker 1 00:02:59 What?
Speaker 0 00:03:00 Yeah. For realsies <laugh> so, and <laugh>, and this is, this is really typical legal English because it's referring to something that's sort of emotional and it uses this sort of, uh, somewhat, somewhat, um, somewhat cold term, but consortium in its legal English, meaning can refer to the romantic and supportive relationship between spouses.
Speaker 1 00:03:33 Oh, I, I think I have heard of this. Like, you, you talk about the phrase loss of consortium is something that you might Sue for to get extra money. Is that right?
Speaker 0 00:03:45 Yeah. Yeah. It almost always comes up in the context of it not being there. So for example, heaven forbid, uh, someone loses a spouse to a terrible accident. One might Sue the person who caused the accident for that loss of consortium, for the loss of the support and the romance that one would otherwise be able to receive from that spouse.
Speaker 1 00:04:14 Yeah. And I, I imagine it's hard to put a number on that, but it's, it's the kind of thing that could, that could get a pretty high value that in a lawsuit.
Speaker 0 00:04:22 Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. I mean, um, and I guess that comes up in law a lot where we try to put a monetary value on things that might not immediately be something that we can reduce to a monetary value, but well, it happens. It happens anyway. I guess it's fair to say that in legal English consortium is also sometimes a, uh, a synonym for sex.
Speaker 1 00:04:47 Yeah. Yeah. That's really the word. That's the proxy. It ends up being a proxy essentially for sex.
Speaker 0 00:04:54 Yeah. I didn't think we'd ever talk about sex on this podcast. Should we have like a warning for people who are listening,
Speaker 1 00:04:59 Maybe speaking of which Dan, are we with? Just two of us, are we a consortium?
Speaker 0 00:05:06 I'm not sure I'm comfortable even answering that question. Um, but, but, but Hey, you know what, you know, what if, if, if we, if we are a consortium, I'm certainly privileged to be part of this us law essentials lawn language podcast consortium with you.
Speaker 1 00:05:23 We could, we could, we could attract a consortium of investors that could that be more comfortable. We
Speaker 0 00:05:29 Could <laugh> I I'd be very comfortable with that. You know,
Speaker 1 00:05:33 If we, if the investors decided to take their money away, would that be a loss of consortium?
Speaker 0 00:05:39 No, that would just get weird and no one would, no one would know that would be a loss of,
Speaker 1 00:05:44 That would be a loss of the consortium, but not a loss of consortium.
Speaker 0 00:05:51 That's a very good distinction that that's more
Speaker 1 00:05:54 Of a grammatical distinction that makes a big, that the makes a big difference in the meaning in a legal context.
Speaker 0 00:06:01 Yes. And that one, one might say that's essential.
Speaker 1 00:06:04 Yeah. Okay. So let's just stay essential. You wanna stay essential then?
Speaker 0 00:06:08 Yes. You, you just go ahead and stay essential. Steve
Speaker 1 00:06:11 <laugh> okay. Put an episode by
Speaker 0 00:06:13 What's another way of, which is another way to say, just stay quiet. Okay. Thanks Dave. Talk. Bye.
