Legal Dictionary - H

Harassment: Systematic, annoying and continued actions which include threats and demands. Harassment in the workplace may subject the employer to a lawsuit for failure to protect the employee being harassed.

Harmless error: A mistake occurring at trial that is considered not sufficiently harmful or prejudicial to merit the reversal of the outcome of a trial.

Hearing: A formal proceeding to hear specific issues of law or of fact before a court, legislature, or agency.

Hearsay: Second-hand information that usually constitutes inadmissible evidence; hearsay evidence includes statements by a witness recalling events related to the witness by someone else.

Hostile witness: a witness, also called an adverse witness, whose relationship to the opposing party is such that his or her testimony may be prejudicial to the opposing party