ABSTRACT

This chapter discusses the burden of persuasion and the burden of going forward with evidence. Burden of persuasion means the degree to which the finder of facts must be persuaded by the evidence that the fact is true. There are many different burdens of persuasion and this chapter examines a few of them. The major burden of persuasion in civil cases is that of a preponderance of the evidence. The burden of going forward is initially on the same person who has the burden of persuasion. It is that party’s responsibility to produce some evidence to support its argument that its version of events is correct. A presumption is exactly that; it is presumed that a given fact is true or that a given type of event occurred as a matter of law. One of the most common burden-shifting presumptions in law is res ipsa loquiter, which translates as “the thing speaks for itself.”