Glossary

Abuse of discretion. Legal term indicating an appellate court believes that there was a commission of an error of law by the trial court.

Accurate. Description of an estimate of a parameter having a small bias coupled with high precision.

Accusation. A formal charge against a person.

Actual damages. Damages suffered by a plaintiff from loss or injury.

Aggravating and mitigating circumstances. Circumstances of defendant's conduct that could affect the award of punitive damages in civil actions or punishment in criminal actions.

Aggravating circumstance. An aggravating circumstance is one attending the commission of a crime or tort that increases its enormity or adds to its injurious consequences, but which is above and beyond the essential constituents of the crime or tort.

Arbitration. A type of alternative dispute resolution in which a neutral third party renders a decision after hearing both disputing parties. If arbitration is voluntary, the disputants choose the arbitrator, and his decision is binding.

Bias. The deviation of an estimate from its true value.

Challenge for cause. Request from a party to a judge that a prospective juror not be allowed to serve on the jury because of a specified cause.

Change of venue. The removal of a trial from one district or county to another or from one court to another. Venue can be changed to obtain a fair criminal trial or to obtain a just or convenient civil trial.

Characteristic. A distinguishing quality of evidence. It may have one or more values. Color is a characteristic and blue is a value of the characteristic "color."

Circumstantial evidence. Evidence that is not direct evidence. Evidence that, in combination with other facts or circumstances, allows deductions to be drawn.

Comparative negligence. Negligence that is quantified as a percentage of fault from which to determine actual damages.

Confidence interval. Interval above and below the average within which the true value will occur with a specified frequency. For example, a 95% confidence interval that is computed from sample values should contain the mean in 95 of 100 samples.

Contributory negligence. Act or omission of plaintiff, which, concurring with defendant's conduct, is a proximate cause of injury. Results in reduced actual damages awarded to the plaintiff.

Close This Window

Defendant. The party defending; the party against whom relief or recovery is sought in an action or suit; the party accused in a criminal case.

Degrees of freedom. In physics, a point that can move in three dimensions is said to have three degrees of freedom. If a statistic is computed from n values, it can have at most n degrees of freedom (i.e., the average of n values is a statistic that has n degrees of freedom). Often the statistic looses one or more degrees of freedom because its definition relies on other statistics (i.e. because the sample standard deviation is a statistic that relies on the average, it has n-1 degrees of freedom).

Direct evidence. The testimony of a witness who sensed the subject in question (i.e., saw, heard, touched, smelled, or tasted).

Evidence. Something that furnishes proof.

Exculpatory evidence. Evidence that tends to prove innocence.

Experiment design. The plan for an experiment that is implemented before data are obtained. Intended to yield as much information as possible from the experiment.

Fact finder. A person appointed to investigate, hear testimony, or determine and report facts in a dispute.

Focus group. A number of persons assembled to discuss elements of the case.

General verdict. A verdict that finds either for the plaintiff or for the defendant upon an issue. A finding upon issues rather than upon facts (as would determine a special verdict).

Grand jury. An investigatory and an accusatory body of 12-23 persons in a criminal case. If a majority believes that the probability of guilt exceeds probable cause, the jury issues a True Bill of indictment. Otherwise it issues No Bill.

Close This Window

Inculpatory evidence. Evidence that tends to prove guilt. Incriminating evidence.

Independence. Two facts are independent if your knowledge of one does not influence your subjective probability of the other.

Independent judgment. A judgment that occurs when no communication exists among those who will decide.

Information. A type of accusation. A formal charge against a person without an indictment (but in the nature of an indictment). Differs from indictment as it is presented by an individual official rather than by a grand jury.

Inquest jury. A body of persons summoned before an official, such as a coroner, to inquire of particular facts.

Interest. A concern of a disputant that arises from the issue that is the subject of the dispute. Each issue may cause a number of interests for each disputant.

Issue. The subject of a dispute.

Level of significance. Probability selected with which to accept or reject a statistical hypothesis. For example, a significance level of 0.05 implies there are 5 chances in 100 that the statistical hypothesis will be rejected when it should have been accepted.

Maximum punitive damages. Punitive damages that the jury would award if the defendant is found liable and the defendant's conduct is considered to be maximally aggravating.

Mediation. A private informal process to resolve a dispute in which a neutral third party helps the parties agree and settle a dispute.

Mini-trial. A voluntary, confidential, and informal type of alternative dispute resolution. A neutral third party renders a non-binding opinion after presentation from each side. Intended to predict the verdict from a trial.

Mitigating circumstance. A mitigating circumstance alleviates, reduces, abates, or diminishes a penalty or punishment imposed by law. It is not an excuse, but it can be considered in fairness and mercy as extenuating or reducing the degree of moral culpability.

Mock jury. A number of evaluators drawn randomly from a population thought to resemble the appropriate venue or venire. It is hoped that their judgments emulate the judgments of those who matter (i.e., the judge or jurors). It is recommended that the members of the mock jury not communicate with each other so their judgments are independent. The actual jurors will communicate during deliberation, but the nature of potentially influential jurors cannot be known.

Mutual acceptability of interests. Method to achieve agreement in mediation. For each disputant, it couples the relative importance of that disputant's interests with the degree of acceptability as judged by the other disputant. The mutual acceptability of each disputant's interests is compared.

Close This Window

Peremptory challenge. A request from a party to a judge that a prospective juror not be allowed to serve on the jury, without needing to specify the cause for the request.

Petit jury. Usual type of jury, named for its size. Usually contains 12 jurors for criminal trials and six jurors for civil trials.

Plaintiff. A person who brings an action. The party who complains or sues in a civil action, seeking remedial relief for an injury to rights. The prosecution in a criminal case.

Population. An entire group from which samples may be drawn.

Precision. Measure of closeness of values. A component of accuracy. High accuracy occurs when small bias is coupled with high precision.

Preponderance of evidence. Standard of proof to determine liability for a defendant in civil cases. It is fixed by statute as any probability greater than 50%.

Probability. Chance that an event will occur. The value of the chance varies between 0 and 1 (or between 0% and 100%); the certainty of nonoccurrence is 0 and the certainty of occurrence is 1.

Probability of aggravation. Probability that at least one independent circumstance of the defendant's conduct proves aggravation. The result of combining all independent circumstances considered to be aggravating and/or mitigating according to the laws of probability theory. Used only to determine punitive damages in civil actions and punishment in criminal actions. In civil trials, this probability is to be compared to the appropriate standard of proof required for punitive damages to be awarded, and if punitive damages are to be awarded, it and the probability of awarding punitive damages should both be multiplied by the maximum punitive damages. In criminal trials, it is to be multiplied by the maximum punishment.

Probability of guilt. Probability that at least one independent fact proves guilt in a criminal action.

Probability of liability. Probability that at least one independent fact proves liability in a civil action.

Probability of responsibility. Probability that at least one independent fact proves responsibility (i.e., liability in civil actions and guilt in criminal actions). The result of combining all independent facts considered to be inculpatory and exculpatory.

Probable cause. Standard of proof for arrest, search, and accusations such as indictments. U.S. Supreme Court decision (Illinois v. Gates, 1983) implied that methods employed by FactLogic should be used to show probable cause.

Prosecution. A criminal action.

Proximate cause. That which produces a result and without which the result would not have occurred. That which stands next to the cause of the result.

Punitive damages. Damages that may be awarded if the defendant's conduct in committing the wrong is shown to be violent, oppressive, malicious fraudulent, or wanton and wicked.

Reasonable certainty. Complement of the reasonable doubt. Since reasonable doubt is a probability less than 50%, reasonable certainty is a probability equally greater than 50%. Reasonable certainty is consistent with other standards of proof in which probability is proportional to responsibility.

Reasonable doubt. Standard of proof from which to prove guilt in criminal cases and to prove egregious conduct in some punitive damage awards, given that the general verdict is For the Plaintiff.

Response Variable. Variable that responds to a change in a dependent variable. In this text it is defined in the following way:

Response Variable = (Probability of Responsibility) - (Standard of Proof)

where the probability of responsibility is the probability of liability in a civil case and the probability of guilt in a criminal case.

Risk analysis. The prediction of a recommendation, decision, or verdict, coupled with the consequences.

Close This Window

Sample. A part of a population. Selected to infer certain facts about the population. Usually drawn from the population and used because of practicality.

Shadow jury. A group of persons that observes court proceedings and communicates its impressions to the attorneys during the trial.

Special verdict. The result of answers from jurors to questions from the court. Questions often relate to percentages of fault in personal injury and wrongful death cases. A finding of facts only.

Standard of proof. A threshold, expressed as a probability, that a proof must exceed for an action to be taken. The threshold usually varies with the consequences of the decision by the official and the alleged act.

Statistic. A quantity computed from a sample. For example, the average is computed from a sample; it is the estimate of the mean of the population.

Statistical analysis. Methods employed to draw conclusions from an experiment. Usually consists of estimation, tests of hypotheses, tests of significance, regression, and analysis of variance.

Statistical hypothesis. An assumption about a characteristic of a population. One hypothesis is usually formulated to be nullified (i.e., rejected) and called a null hypothesis. A second hypothesis is often formulated as an alternative hypothesis.

Statistical verdict. The result of accepting or rejecting the hypothesis that the probability of responsibility equals a threshold (i.e., a standard of proof). The truth of a hypothesis is tested at a specified level of significance, A. If there are two thresholds, the probability of responsibility lies in one of three intervals. Therefore, there can be one of three verdicts.

Student's t distribution. A sampling distribution that closely approximates the normal distribution if the number of degrees of freedom is greater than or equal to 30.

Summary jury trial. A form of alternative dispute resolution that is intended to resemble a civil trial. The jury advises only.

Test of significance. Procedure to decide whether to accept or reject a statistical hypothesis.

Venire. The group of citizens from which the jury is to be selected.

Venue. Geographical area within which the court with jurisdiction may hear and determine a case.

Voir dire. Preliminary examination by the court and attorneys of prospective jurors to determine their suitability as jurors.