by Molly Slag, American Thinker:
The current status of the New York civil fraud case that New York Attorney Letitia James filed against Donald Trump, and that resulted in a huge ruling against him, thanks to Judge Arthur Engoron, is just a little bit of a puzzle. In the short term, Trump is on defense, but the wheels of justice should turn and place him on offense. Understanding that requires us to look at the logic of the law, a subject at once fascinating and exacting and, sometimes, very surprising.
The role of logic in law is one of the features of the law that most non-lawyers misunderstand. When a case goes to trial, whether criminal or civil, it is because the two sides are unable to resolve their differences out of court. This means the parties disagree either as to the facts of the dispute, or as to the law governing the dispute, or both.
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The two sides to a court case are called the “plaintiff” and the “defendant.” In a criminal case, the plaintiff is the state, sometimes called the “people” of the state. Whether criminal or civil, the plaintiff accuses the defendant of some kind of wrongdoing. This accusation of wrongdoing has a name, such as theft, burglary, rape, robbery, negligence, breach of contract, fraud, etc.
In all cases, whether criminal or civil, the accusation has what are called “elements.” The elements of the accusation are propositions that the plaintiff must prove true to prevail on his case. In a criminal case the plaintiff must prove each element of the accusation true beyond a reasonable doubt. In a civil case the plaintiff must prove each element of the accusation true by a preponderance of the evidence.
Here are some Examples of accusations and their elements:
Theft: The elements of the crime of theft are (1) the defendant seized (2) a thing of value (3) that is not his own and (4) carried it away.
Malicious Prosecution: The elements of the tort of malicious prosecution are (1) The civil or criminal action was terminated in favor of the plaintiff (who was the defendant in the underlying case). (2) The defendant filed or played an active role in the underlying case. (3) The defendant had no reasonable grounds to file and pursue the underlying case. (4) The defendant filed or pursued the underlying case for an improper purpose or abusive purpose, such as a desire to ruin the plaintiff’s reputation. (5) Plaintiff suffered significant harm because of the defendant’s actions.
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