B & H Law Firm
What You Need to Know About Civil Cases
Some Things To Know If This is Your First Time
- The plaintiff is the person who brings the other person to court because of charges. The other person is the defendant.
- The plaintiff is the one that files a complaint in these sort of cases. A complaint is a document that is filed by the plaintiff.
- The Summons is a document that is prepared by the plaintiff and is issued by a court that informs the defendant on why it is that they are being sued.
- A pleadings is a formal written statement of a party's claims or defenses to the other party's claims.
- The Pretrial Conference is exactly what you would think it would be. This conference occurs before the trial where both parties are to outline discovery proceedings and to define the issues that are to be tried.
- A trial is the examination before of the facts put in issue in a cause, often including issues of law as well as issues of face.
- Mediation is a form of alternative dispute resolution in which the parties in a lawsuit meet with a neutral third-party in an effort to settle the case. The third-party is called a mediator.
- An Arbitration is a proceeding in which a dispute is resolved by an impartial adjudicator whose decision the parties in the dispute have decided, or legislation has decreed, will be final and binding.
- Preponderance of the evidence is required in a civil case and is contrasted with "beyond a reasonable doubt", which is the more severe test of evidence required to convict in a criminal trial. The definition of this term varies greatly depending on who is asked.
- The Verdict is the decision on whether or not the defendant is guilty of what they were charged for.
- An appeal is a document that is sent in so that a case can be tried again in a higher court if someone loses the case.