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You Asked Me This Question / Re: Should lawyers casually say “plea of guilty” and “plea of innocent”?

« on: May 15, 2010, 11:47:46 PM »

The way I understand it, "guilty" (while lexicon-wise is an adjective) is used in the phrase "plea of guilty" as a noun.  It is the same if it is a plea of "not guilty" as what the clerk actually enters in the records of the case as the plea of the accused is either "guilty" or "not guilty".  Although lately there have been accused persons who prefer to have entered in the records "innocent" as their plea.

2

You Asked Me This Question / Re: Is “fiscalizer” a legitimate word in the English language?

« on: May 15, 2010, 11:32:29 PM »

Fiscalizer may be related to Fiscal - the terms we used to call Public Prosecutors (who are the advocates of the People of the Philippines in criminal cases).

In fact, although public prosecutors are no longer officially designated as fiscals, in practice, they are still referred to as such.

Thus, to fiscalize had the connotation of taking the cudgels for the Filipino people with respect to a certain issue (usually against the government)