Forfeiture

A forfeiture is a cancellation in contract law. Most commonly a forfeiture is a legal action whereby a contract purchaser following default loses all his interest in the property.

In litigation forfeiture has a different meaning. Forfeiture in a trial is the failure to make the timely assertion of a right. This is contrasted with waiver, which is the intentional relinquishment or abandonment of a known right. This distinction is important, because a right that is waived is lost on appeal unless there is proof that the waiver was defective, but a right that is forfeited may be the subject of an assertion of plain error on appeal (for overturning the trial decision).