Legal status

Legal status describes the legal rights, duties and obligations of a person or entity, or a subset of those rights and obligations.^[1][2] The term may be used to describe a person's legal condition with respect to personal rights, but excluding proprietary relations, such as their having the status of a spouse. It may also refer to legal capacity apart from other elements of personal status, such as the status of a minor,^[1][3] or the set of privileges, obligations, powers or restrictions that a person or entity receives through legislation.^[4]

The term may also refer to a person's legal condition as imposed by law but without consent, such as the status of an indentured servant when indentured servitude is enforced by law.^[1]

Legal status may be something that arises solely by operation of law, such as being a Social Security recipient, describing the individual's relationship to the law.^[3]