Diligence

The doing things in proper time.

It may be divided into three degrees; ordinary diligence, extraordinary diligence, and slight diligence. It is the reverse of negligence. Under that article is shown what degree of negligence, or want of diligence, will make a party to a contract responsible to the other.

In Scotland, there are certain forms of law whereby a creditor endeavors to make good his payment, either by affecting the person of his debtor, or by securing the subjects belonging to him from alienation, or by carrying the property of these subjects to himself. They are either real or personal.

Real diligence is that which is proper to heritable or real rights, and of this kind there are two sorts: 1. Inhibitions. 2. Adjudication, which the law has substituted in the place of apprising.

Personal diligence is that by which the person of the debtor may be secured, or his personal estate affected.
   

This entry contains material from Bouvier's Legal Dictionary, a work published in the 1850's.