Court Procedures

Mr. Kats test

(Criminal only) You must be 95% sure/ practically absolutely, takes someone liberty

Beyond Reasonable Doubt

(Civil only) You must be 51% sure/ more than halfway sure; Deals with money, make sure that the evidence is there to support your reason

Preponderance of the Evidence

(Civil only) You must be 75%/ deals with someone’s livelihood (job/career)

Clear and Convincing Evidence

] Jury selection

All cases BUT capital murder= 6+ 1 (alternate)

Captial Murder= 12+ 3 (alternate)

It’s a must to use stereotypes when selecting jury

Both you (the lawyer) and the juror(s) takes a second to decide if they like you ( or vise-versa); First impressions!!!!!

Voir Dire

Lawyer prepares for trial

Prosecution turns their evidence over the defense

Pre-Trial Motions

Request for Deposition (type of motion)

Discovery

Motion(discovery)

request for judge to do something

Motion to dismiss(discovery)

Defense may request for case to be thrown out

Motion to Suppress(discovery)

Request for evidence to be hidden

401

RELEVANCE – objection) If evidence (oral and physical) can help the jury decide a verdict then the jury may hear/see it [criminal and civil] (Now: Simple Relevance)

403

(Proloative value test) {proloative means helpful} it weighs the helpfulness of the evidence against the pitfalls to the jury (Pitfall VS helpfulness)

404(a)

Can’t show or touch character (trait of a person) [intangible]

404(1)

Character of the defendant: if the defendant opens the door to character the prosecution can rebuttal that and use character against them

404(2)

Character of the victim: open by the defense, prosecution can rebuttal

exception one

Character of a rape victim handled from rule 412

exception two

If the defense is claiming self-defense in murder case the prosecution may introduce evidence of the character trait of peacefulness of the victim

What did Mr. Kats say about this?

actually, open the door in Discovery because in Discovery is when prosecution knows that the defense is claiming self-defense

404(3)

Character of a Witness

* Dealt in the 600

404(b)

Just because someone DID something or acted in some way in the PAST DOES NOT MEAN he/she Did that now or acted that way now. There is a loophole.

405

How the character is introduced

[Only works on 404(a)(1)(2)(3)]

405 (a)

Reputation or Opinion
When oping the door, ONLY reputation is used

When rebutting, YOU MAY use opinion/specific instances of conduct

405(b)

Character is an element [def of an element: what a plaintiff or prosecution must prove/ find them in the statues (dived into elements)]

If character is an element, an attorney MAY use specific Instances of conduct