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Search results for “civil procedure”

20 results

Preponderance vs beyond a reasonable doubt and why your workplace case needs far less proof

In most civil workplace cases, you do not need airtight proof - you need enough credible evidence to show your version is more likely true than not.

ARTICLE by Theresa Palazzo

Illegal search, real evidence: why police can lose a case even when they found the goods

Mapp v. Ohio made illegally seized evidence unusable in state criminal trials, forcing police to follow the Fourth Amendment instead of treating it like a suggestion.

ARTICLE by Kyle Reinhart

What evidence can be excluded from court, and why?

A judge can exclude important-looking evidence at the last minute, even if it seems decisive, and once that happens a claim or defense can weaken fast. That surprises many...

Terry v. Ohio: the street stop rule that grew far beyond one man on a Cleveland sidewalk

Terry v. Ohio created the rule that lets police briefly stop and pat down someone without a warrant, and the real fight now is over how much suspicion counts as enough.

ARTICLE by Colleen O'Brien

Habeas corpus is real, but proving you should be released is brutally hard

Habeas corpus lets a prisoner challenge unlawful custody, but modern federal habeas mostly turns on a punishing rule: it is not enough to show the state court was wrong.

ARTICLE by LaKeisha Davis

Eighth Amendment: the "evolving standards" test that changed everything

The Eighth Amendment is not a list of banned punishments so much as a moving constitutional standard, and one Supreme Court case explains why.

ARTICLE by Pete Rossignol

patent prosecution

Defense lawyers may throw around "patent prosecution" in a way that sounds like someone is being accused of a crime. It is not criminal prosecution. In plain English, it means...

Joint and several liability: the old rule that can leave one defendant holding the whole bag

Joint and several liability means an injured person may collect the full judgment from one defendant, but the real fight is how that rule collides with comparative fault, settlements, bankruptcy, and state law changes.

ARTICLE by Keith Ouellette

How does a government tort claim work after a long-delayed injury?

A recent policy shift has made this more visible: federal agencies have tightened online claim procedures under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA), so more people first learn...

why can companies force arbitration instead of court?

The key thing to know is that many companies can require arbitration because federal law strongly favors enforcing arbitration clauses. Arbitration is a private dispute...

Employee vs independent contractor: the liability dodge that usually fails

Vicarious liability means you can end up paying for someone else's misconduct, and the old "they weren't really my employee" escape hatch is a lot weaker than people think.

ARTICLE by Danny Correia

examination under oath

Miss this for a routine phone call, answer loosely, or skip it, and an insurer may use that against you to delay, reduce, or even deny your claim. An examination under oath is...

DMCA takedown notice

Not a court order, and not proof that someone actually infringed a copyright. It is a formal request sent under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (DMCA), usually...

Almost everyone gets the Commerce Clause wrong - and it decides who can make the rules

The Commerce Clause is why Congress can reach far beyond shipping and trucking, but it still has real limits that matter if you are thinking about suing under federal law.

ARTICLE by Marcus Brown

Why does the other side want federal court for my discrimination case?

What your doctor says is wrong and what the insurance company does with that information are different things: one describes the harm, the other decides how hard to fight it....

If my injury happened years ago, what is preponderance of the evidence?

The one thing your employer or landlord is hoping you never find out is that preponderance of the evidence is the lowest common standard of proof in civil law. It means your...

At-will employment: the "you can be fired anytime" rule has one giant catch

At-will employment is the default rule in almost every state, but it only really applies if you are legally an employee in the first place.

ARTICLE by James Thornton

Dobbs changed abortion law fast, but enforcement is messier than it looks

The Supreme Court erased the nationwide abortion right in 2022, but whether state abortion bans actually get enforced often depends on who is suing, who is prosecuting, and which court steps in.

ARTICLE by Wayne Hustead

likelihood of confusion test

People mix this up with actual confusion, and that mistake matters. Actual confusion means real buyers were genuinely fooled - wrong calls, misdirected orders, bad reviews...

Why is my criminal record still showing up if it was expunged?

Expungement does not always mean the record disappears everywhere. In the United States, what "expunged" means depends heavily on state law, and in many places it is closer to...