What is a Frivolous Lawsuit?

 

 

A frivolous lawsuit refers to a lawsuit that is brought without justification and has no merit. In order for a suit to be considered frivolous under the law, generally there must be no legal grounds for such a suit.

Some people believe that a frivolous lawsuit refers to any silly lawsuit. In general, however, frivolous lawsuits in the eyes of the law mean something more specific. Even if a lawsuit is silly, it does not necessarily mean it is without legal merit.

When a plaintiff files papers, he must list the facts surrounding the litigation. He must also list the legal grounds, in other words, what law or legal duty was breached. Finally, he must list the damages he suffered. The court uses this to determine whether there is a potential legal question and whether it is possible that some duty or law was breached.

If the facts cannot possibly add up to a breach of legal duty, or if there are no legal grounds for a lawsuit, the claim may be considered a frivolous lawsuit. The plaintiff may file frivolous lawsuits for any number of reasons. The plaintiff may wish to harass the defendant or may truly believe that he has grounds for the suit.

If a defendant is the subject of a frivolous lawsuit, he may be able to sue the other party for the tort of malicious prosecution. In order to win such a case, however, the defendant would need to demonstrate not just that the plaintiff's lawsuit was a frivolous lawsuit and without merit, but also that the plaintiff knew it was frivolous and filed it anyway out of malicious intent.

 

Adapted from http: //www.wisegeek.com

The Trial

Most lawsuits never go to trial. The parties settle their dispute or simply drop the case. Often, the outcome of a pretrial motion resolves the case or encourages one of the parties to settle. If a case does go to trial, it’s usually because the parties disagree so much about the underlying facts that they need a judge to decide whose version is correct.

Trials involve a set of rituals that are supposed to ferret out the truth. The biggest determinant of what happens in a trial is whether it is a trial by jury or a trial by judge. Many of the rules governing trial procedure are aimed at producing an impartial jury and making sure that the jury doesn’t receive evidence that is unreliable in some fundamental way. Judges, on the other hand, are presumed to be able to act impartially and tell reliable evidence from unreliable evidence.

Jury trials begin with the selection of the jury. The judge and lawyers for both sides question potential jurors about their knowledge of the case and possible biases relating to their clients and the important issues in the case. This process is called “voir dire.”

Once a jury is selected, the attorneys address the jury in opening statements that outline what they expect to show in the upcoming trial. Then the plaintiff begins, offering testimony from witnesses and information in documents to establish a version of events. The testimony and documents are then subject to challenge by the defendant through a process called “cross-examination.” Once the plaintiff’s case is presented, the defendant has the opportunity to present a defense, subject to the plaintiff’s cross-examination. Commonly, the plaintiff gets the last shot (called a “rebuttal”) in an opportunity to answer the defendant’s case.

 

Adapted from Legal Research by Stephen Elias

Irregular verbs

Infinitive	Past Simple	Past participle
be	was / were	been
become	became	become
begin	began	begun
bite	bit	bitten
break	broke	broken
bring	brought	brought
build	built	built
burn	burned / burnt	burned / burnt
buy	bought	bought
catch	caught	caught
choose	chose	chosen
come	came	come
cost	cost	cost
cut	cut	cut
dig	dug	dug
do	did	done
draw	drew	drawn
dream	dreamed/dreamt	dreamed/dreamt
drink	drank	drunk
drive	drove	driven
eat	ate	eaten
fall	fell	fallen
feed	fed	fed
feel	felt	felt
find	found	found
fly	flew	flown
forget	forgot	forgotten
get	got	got
give	gave	given
go	went	gone
grow	grew	grown
hang	hung	hung
have	had	had
hear	heard	heard
hide	hid	hidden
hit	hit	hit
hold	held	held
hurt	hurt	hurt
keep	kept	kept
know	knew	known
learn	learnt/learned	learnt/learned
leave	left	left
Let	let	let
lose	lost	lost
make	made	made
mean	meant	meant
meet	met	met
pay	paid	paid
put	put	put
read	read	read
ride	rode	ridden
ring	rang	rung
run	ran	run
say	said	said
see	saw	seen
sell	sold	sold
send	sent	sent
set	set	set
show	showed	shown
sing	sang	sung
sit	sat	sat
sleep	slept	slept
smell	smelt/smelled	smelt/smelled
speak	spoke	spoken
spend	spent	spent
stand	stood	stood

 

steal	stole	stolen
swim	swam	swum
take	took	taken
teach	taught	taught
tell	told	told
think	thought	thought
throw	threw	thrown
understand	understood	understood
wake	woke	woken
wear	wore	worn
win	won	won
write	wrote	written

 

 

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