DUE
Just; proper; regular; lawful; sufficient; reasonable, as in the phrases due care, due process of law, due notice.
Owing; payable; justly owed. That which one contracts to pay or perform to another; that which law or justice requires to be paid or done. Owed, or owing, as distinguished from payable. A debt is often said to be due from a person where he or she is the party owing it, or primarily bound to pay, whether the time for payment has or has not arrived. The same thing is true of the phrase due and owing.
The term due is essentially contextual in
nature and has various legal applications, all of
which involve the sufficiency or reasonableness
of an action or obligation.
Due care is the use of the requisite amount of
caution needed in a particular set of circum-
stances based upon what a reasonably prudent
person would do under similar circumstances.
Exercising due care while driving might mean
obeying traffic regulations.
Due consideration is the proper weight or
significance given to a matter or a factor as cir-
cumstances mandate. It may also have applica-
tion in sufficiency of consideration in the law of
