U

Unfair Merchandising: Many states have laws against unfair marketing of goods or services to consumers. In some states it’s called the Merchandising Practices Act. This provides a wide range of remedies for sales abuses, and with some limitations these rights will apply against whoever possesses the debt. Federal law also has a huge assortment of regulations and laws applying to merchandising or sales of materials coming under  the authority of the Federal Trade Commission, among other governmental entities.

V

Venire panel: The group of people from whom the jury will eventually be selected. The handbook addresses the jury selection process extensively.

Voir Dire: The opportunity for parties in a lawsuit to ask the prospective jurors questions to see if they already have opinions about the case or certain issues (“prejudices”). This term can be pronounced in many strange ways, from “vor-dire” or “vor deer” to “vwa-deer.” It’s what they say when it’s a question of talking to the jury and selecting people for it.

W

Wherefore clause:  The last paragraph of each cause of action in which the party seeking relief specifies what form of relief is requested (what they want). In theory, this is all one is allowed to seek after a trial, but this rule is applied very liberally—parties are sometimes allowed to “amend” (change) their pleadings even after trial if there has been evidence produced (and not objected to) consistent with the new pleadings. The wherefore clause is much more important as a limitation in default cases, where it generally does prevent the debt collector from getting a judgment larger or different than sought in the words of the petition or lawsuit.