Courtrooms and Law

Courtrooms and Law​

Firstly lets discuss the 3 counsels which you will see:
1. Plaintiff- A person who brings about a civil complaint (only in civil cases) who seeks compensatory relief due to damages caused by a defendant based on statutory claims. In simpler terms, it's the person who is bringing upon the case in a court of law.

2. Defendant- A defendant can be present in both a civil and criminal case. In a civil case a defendant is one who has been sued by a plaintiff. In a criminal case a defendant is one who is being accused of a violation of a crime which is prosecutable by the government.

3. Prosecutor- This type of counsel would be present in a government brought on case. It is one who has the job of prosecuting people accused of violations of crimes. It can be local, state or federal government appointed.

Two Case Types

Criminal:

• In criminal cases defendants, or those being accused, are pronounced innocent of the charges which are portrayed by the government.

• The defendant usually will not have much proof. The majority of the proof will be present in the governments case.

• The government must prove that the defendant is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, so they must assure that the defendant is proved guilty to a certain extent.

Civil:

• No one is presumed innocent or guilty, the case begins neutrally. Basically the innocent until guilty rule doesn't apply here.

• The plaintiff, just as the government in criminal cases, will usually have the majority of proof in the case.

• The plaintiff's job is to prove that their story is valid by accurately portraying the evidence - providing that their evidence is accurate to begin with.

Opportunities to All

• Both parties have the right to prior notice of the allegations being brought upon them, usually the defendant.

• Can call witnesses which will assist the case from one's perspective.

• Each party is allowed ample time to prepare their case, depending upon the type of case.

• Everyone is allow representation by a lawyer.

• Each party is allowed to view all documents of the other party in order to profess their story and how things were from their perspective.

• Each party is allowed a cross examination of witnesses which are brought upon the court by the other counsel.

• A fair judge and jury.

Questioning Types in Trial

1. Open ended- these are questions which give the witness the ability to answer freely and go anywhere they please with the answer to the question.
Example:

2. Closed- these are questions which can usually only have one response such as a yes or no answer. Exceptions to this would be questions which have only one definite answer such as age.
Example:

3. Leading- these types of questions are those in which the question usually infers the answer which the counsel desires. These types of questions are not allowed on direct examination of a witness.
Example:

Direct and Cross-Examination
1. Direct examination is examination by a party on a witness whom they called to the stand. In direct examination no leading questions are allowed unless they are establishing a foundation. A foundational question would be something such as: "You knew this doctor previously, correct?" By establishing a foundation we mean gaining base knowledge. During direct examination one is trying to solidify the evidence they have through another person which can show the jury the accuracy of a story.

2. Cross-examination is basically the interrogation or rigorous questioning of a witness who was put on the stand by the other party. In these situations you want to make sure you use leading questions and get the answers flowing, thus it becomes second nature to tell the truth. Usually one will object just to break the flow in attempts to throw the cross-examiner off track. Also, you must make sure not to badger the witness, in other terms don't harass them verbally with assumptions but be stern with your questions by implying answers.

Objections
Objections are difficult and the parties must be paying attention to pickup on when they should object because if not, the questions could be detrimental to their case in various ways. An objection is an interruption of the flow of the court by counsel in hopes that the judge will sustain an object, thus disallowing the question.

• Sustaining an objection means that the judge has accepted the objection.

The tricky part of objections is that you cannot just stand up and object without grounds, you must have a reason for objection. A few of these reasons can be: relevance to the situation, hearsay, no foundation, leading questions on direct examination and argumentation with a witness/badgering a witness.

• Relevance to the situation can be described as when one questions a witness, but the question doesn't apply to the situation in court and will not justify the outcome of the case.

• Hearsay is when one questions a witness and asks what someone has told them. This would be classified as something which is not their own thought or viewpoint thus they can't comment on it.

• Non-foundational questions are those which one assumes without establishing a base, thus the question could be discredited because one can't assume that the answer is the truth.

Evidence
-Evidence is any material object or writing that are offered to the judge and the jury to prove a fact or prove that a so called fact is false. Once a piece of evidence is accepted it can become record evidence if it is admitted into the trial evidence by the judge.
Evidence may only be accepted if it fits in one of the following categories:

1. Relevance
2. Hearsay
3. The order of the presentation of the evidence
4. Character

When character evidence is put into the trial by one side, the other may put in any character evidence as well. So, if one puts in good character evidence about how good of a person one is due to some previous actions, the other side may put in evidence about how bad of a person one is with bad character evidence.

 

You could add about Crown Court and Magistrates' Court for all the people in the UK.

 

I'm not from the UK so I'm not going to write about something I know nothing about. Thanks for the suggestion though, I'm from the US so this is the knowledge I can offer.

 

Free Court Records there is also a section for addresses and websites which you can click on to be taken to a complete directory to be able to contact, visit, call or email any of the District Courts. If you want to email the Judicial Information Division (usually to update your records) there is a place to click on that will take you directly to an email page where you can write your message and email it directly to the court.

 

I'm not entirely sure what that has to do with the guide - yeah it's pertinent information, but not exactly the same realm of focus.