Nov. 7, 2018
‘Go ahead then... prove it!’
Burdens of proof are presented in law school as if they are well-settled and purely procedural. In actuality, they are neither.
2nd Appellate District, Division 2
Brian M. Hoffstadt
Associate Justice
California Court of Appeal
UCLA School of Law, 1995
A civil plaintiff has to prove his case by a preponderance of the evidence; a prosecutor has to prove hers beyond a reasonable doubt. We all learned these rules in law school, but I did not truly appreciate why they exist until, as a new trial judge, I was confronted with the testimony of two equally believable witnesses, one saying the light was green and the other saying it was red. As I agonized with a colleague over what to do, he repli...
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