The word infant is often used in legal documents. When it is used in legal documents (court records, land records, probate records, etc.) is is being used in the legal sense–someone under the age of majority.

This historically has been twenty-one years of age, but US states typically now end the legal definition of infancy at eighteen. Readers who have questions about use of the word at a certain point in time should search contemporary state statute.

The key to remember is that someone referred to as an infant in a legal document can easily be sixteen years old.

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