“Leave” has numerous meanings in English, including legal and non-legal meanings.
In legal English, leave often refers to permission from a court to do something otherwise not permissible. For example, a party may need leave from the court to file a document after time has expired. Similarly, if a court grants a party leave to appeal, the court is allowing a party permission to appeal.
Leave can also refer to permission to be absent from work. And in some instances, the law requires employers to grant employees leaves of absence. By way of example, the Family and Medical Leave Act requires employers with 50 or more employees to allow up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for certain types of urgent family and medical-related matters.
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