A legal term meaning too small to be meaningful or taken into consideration; immaterial. As a matter of policy, the law does not encourage parties to bring legal actions for technical breaches of rules or agreements where the impact of the breach is negligible. The term de minimis is taken from a longer Latin phrase which translates into "the law does not concern itself with trifles." De minimis exceptions are commonly included in contracts to limit the application of covenants or other restrictions so that they do not apply in circumstances where the failure to observe the restriction has negligible impact.