Getting Involved in the Law
By: Madison Meyers
What is a Civil Case?
What Happens During a Trial...
~First, the plaintiff accuses someone for doing something.
~The accused is considered the defendant.
~The defendant will receive a summons telling them they must go to court to answer a complaint or a charge (a complaint is a notice that there is a lawsuit being brought about)
~The pretrial conference is a conference held before the trial begins to bring the parties together to outline discovery proceedings and to define the issues to be tried
~Pleadings are the statements delivered between the the plaintiff and the defendant until the issue is solved
~If a third party is called in to help the plaintiff and the defendant reach an agreement, it would be considered a meditation
~In a meditation, the third party listens to both the plaintiff and defendants points and makes a decision that is binding for both parties, called an arbitration
~The preponderance of evidence is a more severe test of evidence required to convict in a criminal trial
~The final decision made by the jury is the verdict of the trial
~If the losing court feels something went wrong in the trial, they can call an appeal and ask for a review from a higher court