Also known as: production burden · persuasion burden · burden of production · burden of persuasion · evidentiary burdens · burden of proof components
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
The allocation of responsibility between parties in a legal proceeding for introducing sufficient evidence on a disputed issue and for ultimately convincing the fact-finder that the issue should be resolved in that party's favor.
Dylan files a petition seeking a declaration of intestacy after his brother Jordan dies without a witnessed will. Dylan supplies evidence of death, venue, and his status as sole heir. Peggy, named as beneficiary in an unwitnessed digital document, offers metadata and testimony to support probate. The court first requires Peggy to meet her initial production burden on due execution before shifting any persuasion questions to Dylan on capacity.
Nova Development offers five years of maintenance logs showing that leaks in comparable buildings almost always stem from neglected common pipes. Pacific Estates must then produce evidence pointing to another cause of the flooding. The ultimate persuasion burden on causation remains with Nova Development throughout the diversity action.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Plaintiffs allege parallel pricing by telecom carriers but supply no facts tending to exclude independent action. The court requires the plaintiffs to produce additional circumstantial evidence at the pleading stage before any persuasion burden on the merits can arise. Without that production, the complaint fails to state a claim.
A public-figure plaintiff offers only conclusory affidavits in response to a media defendant's motion. The defendant has already produced evidence of its reporting process. The court holds that the plaintiff failed to produce facts creating a genuine issue on actual malice, so the persuasion burden never shifts and summary judgment is proper.
A prosecutor strikes all Black venire members in a case with a Black defendant. The defendant produces evidence of a pattern suggesting purposeful discrimination. The prosecutor must then articulate a race-neutral explanation for each strike, after which the defendant retains the ultimate persuasion burden on discriminatory intent.
A district court orders production of White House documents in a civil suit. The Vice President produces a privilege log but must still come forward with particularized showings of harm. The plaintiffs retain the persuasion burden on overcoming the privilege once the initial production threshold is met.
The plaintiff must produce evidence showing how recipients actually understood the words and must persuade the fact-finder that the meaning was defamatory. The defendant has no initial obligation to disprove defamatory meaning.
A presumption shifts only the burden of production to the party against whom it is directed. The burden of persuasion remains on the party who originally bore it.
The proponent of the will must establish prima facie proof of due execution in all cases. The contestant then bears the burden of establishing lack of capacity or other invalidating factors, with each party retaining the ultimate persuasion burden on the matters it initially must prove.
The movant must produce evidence showing the absence of a genuine dispute. The nonmovant must then produce facts that would allow a reasonable jury to find for it, after which the persuasion burden on the merits remains with the party who would bear it at trial.
…disturbance constitutes an affirmative defense rather than a simple defense. Consequently the defendant bears not only the burden of production on this issue; he has the burden of persuasion as well. N. Y. Penal Law § 25.00 (McKinney 1975). B Mullaney held invalid Maine's requirement that the defendant prove heat of…