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Memorandum Opinion
Under United States legal practice, a memorandum opinion is usually unpublished and cannot be cited as precedent. It is formally defined as: " unanimous appellate opinion that succinctly states the decision of the court; an opinion that briefly reports the court's conclusion, usu. without elaboration because the decision follows a well-established legal principle or does not relate to any point of law." Generally, memorandum opinions follow ordinary rules, including the application of precedent and the rule of ''stare decisis''. However, in many courts (for example, the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York), the style of analysis in memorandum opinions is much more concise and conclusory than it would be in an opinion intended for publication. That is, long strings of case citations are often inserted without explication or analysis of the applicability of the cited cases. In contrast, the California Constitution requires that all appellate decisions in California ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Precedent
Precedent is a judicial decision that serves as an authority for courts when deciding subsequent identical or similar cases. Fundamental to common law legal systems, precedent operates under the principle of ''stare decisis'' ("to stand by things decided"), where past judicial decisions serve as case law to guide future rulings, thus promoting consistency and predictability. Precedent is a defining feature that sets common law systems apart from Civil law (legal system), civil law systems. In common law, precedent can either be something courts must follow (binding) or something they can consider but do not have to follow (persuasive). Civil law (legal system), Civil law systems, in contrast, are characterized by comprehensive Code of law, codes and detailed statutes, with no emphasis on precedent, and where judges primarily focus on fact-finding and applying codified law. Courts in common law systems rely heavily on case law, which refers to the collection of precedents and le ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division
The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York is the intermediate appellate court in New York State. The state is geographically divided into four judicial departments of the Appellate Division. The full title of each is, using the "Fourth Department" as an example, the "Supreme Court of the State of New York, Appellate Division, Fourth Judicial Department".NY Courts website Appellate Divisions page Accessed June 24, 2009. Jurisdiction The Appellate Division primarily hears appeals from the state's s ( |
California Constitution
The Constitution of California () is the primary organizing law for the U.S. state of California, describing the duties, powers, structures and functions of the government of California. California's constitution was drafted in both English and Spanish by American pioneers, European settlers, and Californios (Hispanics of California) and adopted at the 1849 Constitutional Convention of Monterey, following the American Conquest of California and the Mexican–American War and in advance of California's Admission to the Union in 1850. The constitution was amended and ratified on 7 May 1879, following the Sacramento Convention of 1878–79. Many of the individual rights clauses in the state constitution have been construed as protecting rights even broader than the United States Bill of Rights in the Federal Constitution. An example is the case of '' Pruneyard Shopping Center v. Robins'', in which "free speech" rights beyond those addressed by the First Amendment to the Uni ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Published Opinion
Non-publication of legal opinions is the practice of a court issuing unpublished opinions. An unpublished opinion is a decision of a court that is not available for citation as precedent because the court deems the case to have insufficient precedential value. In the system of common law, each judicial decision becomes part of the body of law used in future decisions. However, some courts reserve certain decisions, leaving them "unpublished", and thus not available for citation in future cases. It has been argued that non-publication helps stem the problem of too much written material creating too little new law. Specifically, the number of federal appeals filed annually grew from 23,200 to 33,360 between 1980 and 1985, and 55,000 federal appeals were filed in 2000. Conversely, studies have shown how non-publication can distort the law. Selective publication is the legal process by which a judge or justices of a court decide whether or not a decision is to be published in a repo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Legal Opinion
In law, a legal opinion is in certain jurisdictions a written explanation by a judge or group of judges that accompanies an order or ruling in a case, laying out the rationale and legal principles for the ruling. Opinions are in those jurisdictions usually published at the direction of the court, and to the extent, they contain pronouncements about what the law is and how it should be interpreted, they reinforce, change, establish, or overturn legal precedent. If a court decides that an opinion should be published, the opinion may be included in a volume from a series of books called law reports ('reporters' in the United States). Published opinions of courts are also collectively referred to as case law, and constitute in the common law legal systems one of the major sources of law. Memorandum opinion Not every case decided by a higher court results in the publication of an opinion; in fact, many cases do not, since an opinion is often published only when the law is bein ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
