A legal fiction is a construct in which something that is clearly false is assumed to be true, often used to circumvent legal codes that legislators are reluctant to change.^[1]

One example is the Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Chiltern HundredsStewardship of the Chiltern Hundreds is a procedural device allowing members of parliament to resign before a general election.,^[a]A hundredAdministrative subdivision of a shire. was an early subdivision of a shire. There are three Chiltern Hundreds: Stoke, Desborough and Burnham, all in Buckinghamshire.^[2] a procedural device allowing members of parliament to resign before a general election, which they have been forbidden to do since 1624. Appointment to the office imposes no duties on the incumbent, offers no salary or stipend, and exists only to meet the requirements of the House of Commons Disqualification Act 1975.^[2]

A more mundane example is the common practice of counting attendees at the beginning of a meeting, to comply with its quorum requirement, but not recording later departures, thus assuming that an initially quorate meeting remained quorate throughout.^[3]