slight-evidence rule. 1. The doctrine providing that, when there is evidence establishing the existence of a conspiracy between at least two other people, the prosecution need only offer slight evidence of a defendant’s knowing participation or intentional involvement in the conspiracy to secure a conviction. • This rule was first announced in Tomplain v. United […]
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New York Times rule. A commonsense rule of ethical conduct holding that one should not do anything arguably newsworthy — in public or in private — that one would mind having reported on the front page of a major newspaper. • In various communities, a local newspaper is substituted for the Times. — Also termed
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United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. An intermediate-level appellate court with jurisdiction to hear appeals in patent cases, various actions against the United States to recover damages, cases from the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, the U.S. Court of International Trade, the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims, the Merit Systems
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Durham rule. Criminal law. A test for the insanity defense, holding that a defendant is not criminally responsible for an act that was the product of mental disease or defect (Durham v. United States, 214 F.2d 862 (D.C. Cir. 1954)). • Formerly used in New Hampshire and the District of Columbia, the Durham rule has
contemporaneous-objection rule. The doctrine that a timely and proper objection to the admission of evidence must be made at trial for the issue of admissibility to be considered on appeal. • An objection is timely if it is made as soon as practicable and is proper if made formally on the record. These requirements afford
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A court order that must be obeyed without an opportunity to respond. • No objections may be lodged or arguments made.
error-of-judgment rule. The doctrine that a professional is not liable to a client for advice or an opinion given in good faith and with an honest belief that the advice was in the client’s best interests, but that was based on a mistake either in judgment or in analyzing an unsettled area of the professional’s
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Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. The rules governing civil actions in the U.S. district courts. — Abbr. Fed. R. Civ. P.; FRCP. [Cases: Federal Civil Procedure 31–44. C.J.S. Evidence § 7.] “Chief Justice Hughes in 1935 appointed fourteen lawyers and law teachers as the Advisory Committee for the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, with William
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Dillon’s rule. The doctrine that a unit of local government may exercise only those powers that the state expressly grants to it, the powers necessarily and fairly implied from that grant, and the powers that are indispensable to the existence of the unit of local government. • For the origins of this rule, see 1
Wharton’s rule ([h]wor-t[schwa]n).Criminal law. The doctrine that an agreement by two or more persons to commit a particular crime cannot be prosecuted as a conspiracy if the crime could not be committed except by the actual number of participants involved. • But if an additional person participates so as to enlarge the scope of the