Terms Related to Judicial Process and Style Flashcards
Judicial Decisions
A judicial decision is a judgment, decree, or order pronounced by a court in settlement of a controversy submitted to it, providing an authoritative answer to the question presented.
Actions
An action is a lawsuit which is filed in court.
Cause of Action
A cause of action is the circumstance or state of facts enabling a party to sustain an action and gives the right to seek a judicial remedy.
Remedy
Remedy refers to the means used to enforce a right or redress a legal injury.
Justice
The term “justice” is ordinarily used in one of two ways. First, “Justice” is the title given to judges in the higher levels of state and federal court. Second, “justice” also refers to the proper administration of societal laws.
Question of Fact
A question of fact is an issue involving the resolution of a factual dispute. Questions of fact are always within the province of the jury, unless the judge is acting as the trier of fact in place of a jury.
Question of Law
A question of law is an issue which entails the application or interpretation of a law and is always solely within the province of the judge.
Legal Fiction
A legal fiction is a situation contrived by the law or a circumstance assumed by a court to support the resolution of legal question.
Conclusion of Law
Under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, a judicial determination, without the assistance of a jury resolution, that particular facts have been established with such a degree of certainty that they may be deemed conclusions of law. The judge must state conclusions of law in a separate writing.
Ratio Decidendi
“Ratio Decidendi” is a Latin term meaning the point in a case which determines the outcome in judgment.
Role of Judge and Jury
The general rule is that the judge determines questions of law and the jury determines question of fact in litigation. Where there is no jury, the judge decides both questions of law and questions of fact.
Precedent
A precedent case is a case which has been decided earlier in time to a later case and both cases turn on the same or substantially similar legal issues and/or facts.
Obiter Dictum or Dictum
Dictum is language or concept in a judge’s opinion which is not necessary to the resolution of the issues in the case or goes beyond the scope of the facts or issues in the case. Dictum is not binding in subsequent cases under the precedence doctrine.
Stare Decisis
A Latin term which means to adhere to previously decided cases or that precedent cases should be followed. This doctrine is limited to actual determinations by the court regarding litigated matters and necessarily decided questions. Dictum does not come under the Doctrine of Stare Decisis.
Prospective Overruling
A judicial decision prospectively overrules when its decision will be applied only to future cases.
