Guide to understanding the meaning of different Public Legal Notices

Factual Questions
1

I posted this question a while back, and it spurred a response:

Anyway, is there a good resource for a non-lawyer audience that explains how to read the “Legal Notices” or “Legals” section of a newspaper and understand each item and what it means in a practical sense? E.g. being able to match the writing with a sample template to conclude that Legal Notice #1, “…the party of the aforementioned panda (John)…said panda…in perpetuity…before this court on petition of Mary…with a benevolence legitimacy date of the 3rd day of November Anno Domini 2012” means, in plain English, “Mary is suing John for monetary damages of some type and the notice indicates that John must file an formal pleading responding to the allegations by 11/3/2012 or else go to jail.”, and that Legal Notice #2, “…before this court with said Child…proceedings for Proper Care and Upbringing…with parents and next of kin…for an evaluation of parenthood against said child William…” means, in plain English, that “Child Protective Services is concerned about little Billy to such an extent as to file a case in Family Court and the judge is giving the public an opportunity to file opinions on whether or not Billy should be put into foster care or whether he should stay with his parents.”

I’m pretty certain that the HUGE notices that start out “In execution of a Deed of Trust in the original principal amount of <money>…” in Virginia newspapers are foreclosure notices. Any jurisdiction is ok.

2

All the more argument in favor of requiring our legal system to use some form of English that The Rest Of Us can understand, and knock-the-hell-off using so many Latin words and phrases while they’re at it. Do all those Latin words and phrases not have an English equivalent translation?

Like, WTH does “subpoena” actually mean, anyway?

3

Legal Dictionary

4

Depending on the type it means either turn up and testify or hand over your documents.

5

You will take my Latin phrases away over my dead body!

On a more serious note many phrases and terms are terms of art and cannot be easily translated into English. Certiorari is a lot cleaner then saying “the lower court shall send it’s records to us so we may determine whether it exceeded it’s jurisdiction in reaching it’s decision or the decision was so unreasonable and capricious that it should be set aside”.