Contact Law & Legal Definition

The word Contact has varied meanings depending on the context in which it is used.

Generally it means

• Close Interaction. For example “they kept in daily contact”
• The act of touching physically, physical contact. For example “A’s fingers came in contact with the light switch”
• The state or condition of being in immediate proximity. For example the litmus paper turns red on contact with acid.
• The physical coming together of two or more things For example “contact with the wall scraped the paint from the car”
• Middle man or any person who is in a position to give special assistance. For example “A used his business contacts to get an introduction to the President.”
• A communicative interaction. For Example “The Pilot made contact with the base.”

Example of some state statutes (Arizona) defining the word “contact”

A.R.S. § 15-1762 [Arizona Revised Statutes, Title 15 Education] defines contact as follows:

"Contact" means a direct or indirect communication between an athlete agent and a student athlete to recruit or solicit the student athlete to enter into an agency contract.

A.R.S. § 36-661 [Arizona Revised Statutes, Title 36 Public health and Safety] defines contact as follows

"Contact" means a spouse or sex partner of a protected person, a person who has shared hypodermic needles or syringes with a protected person or a person otherwise exposed to a protected person with a communicable disease in a manner that poses an epidemiologically significant risk of transmission of that disease.