Also known as: reaffirm · reaffirms · reaffirmed · reaffirming · reaffirmations · reaffirmation agreement
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
An act of expressly approving or confirming something previously decided or agreed to. The confirmation renews the prior determination and may carry legal consequences for the parties or doctrine involved.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
After a child was injured during a family outing, the parents faced a negligence suit brought on the child's behalf. The trial court applied the parental immunity doctrine to dismiss the claim. On appeal the reviewing court expressly confirmed the doctrine's continued validity, holding that ordinary negligence arising from parental supervision remains shielded to preserve family harmony.
A patient sued a medical device manufacturer after suffering complications from an implanted device. The manufacturer had warned the prescribing physician of the risks. The appellate court expressly confirmed that the duty to warn runs only to the physician, not the patient, and required the plaintiff to prove that a different warning would have changed the physician's decision.
The court expressly confirms that the earlier rule remains good law and continues to govern similar disputes. This confirmation binds lower courts within the jurisdiction and signals that the doctrine has not been overruled or limited by subsequent developments.
Reaffirmation can rest on the original record and prior reasoning. The court need only state that the earlier holding continues to apply without revisiting every underlying fact.
…a deprivation of due process for purposes of the Fourteenth. On rehearing, a majority of the Seventh Circuit, sitting en banc, reaffirmed the panel decision.[^maj-4] Acknowledging that what had occurred was a “seizure” in the literal sense of the word, the court reasoned that, because it was not made in the course of public…