Also known as: weights · weight of evidence
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
4 senses
The degree of credence or persuasiveness a factfinder assigns to admitted evidence. A trial judge decides admissibility while the jury alone determines how much weight to give the evidence once admitted.
The degree of credence or persuasiveness a factfinder assigns to admitted evidence. A trial judge decides admissibility while the jury alone determines how much weight to give the evidence once admitted.
Admissibility is decided by the judge under the Federal Rules of Evidence. Once evidence is admitted, the jury alone decides what weight or credibility to assign it, including the option to give it no weight at all.
The relative importance a court assigns to different factors when construing an agreement. Courts give great weight to the parties' principal purpose and to course of performance while according express terms greater weight than course of dealing or usage of trade.
Congress enacts a statute fixing a uniform national standard for the weight of gold coins. A state attempts to enforce its own differing weight requirement for the same coins. The federal statute prevails because Congress alone possesses the enumerated power to fix the standard of weights.
Whitestone Bank and Woodridge Manufacturing sign a supply contract whose stated goal is to ensure steady delivery of parts for Woodridge's assembly line. When a dispute arises over delivery timing, the court gives great weight to the parties' principal purpose of continuous production and interprets ambiguous language accordingly.
The equal value or influence each valid vote must carry in an election. Uniform standards are required so that similarly marked ballots receive equal weight and no vote is diluted relative to others.
After a close presidential election, one county counts dimpled ballots as votes while a neighboring county requires a fully detached chad. A voter whose ballot was rejected under the stricter standard sues. The recount violates equal protection because ballots marked the same way receive unequal weight across the state.
The special deference a court must give a fit parent's decisions about a child's care and associations. A fit parent's judgment is presumed to serve the child's best interests and receives controlling weight over contrary third-party requests.
Wren Wallace, a fit parent, refuses to allow her child's grandparents more than occasional visits. The grandparents petition for expanded visitation under a best-interests statute. The court denies the petition because it must give special weight to the fit parent's determination rather than substitute its own judgment.
The relative importance a court assigns to different factors when construing an agreement. Courts give great weight to the parties' principal purpose and to course of performance while according express terms greater weight than course of dealing or usage of trade.
The equal value or influence each valid vote must carry in an election. Uniform standards are required so that similarly marked ballots receive equal weight and no vote is diluted relative to others.
The special deference a court must give a fit parent's decisions about a child's care and associations. A fit parent's judgment is presumed to serve the child's best interests and receives controlling weight over contrary third-party requests.
Each sense below has its own examples, sources, and questions.
Winslow Aviation repeatedly accepts late payments from a parts supplier without objection over two years. When the supplier misses another payment and Winslow claims breach, the court gives great weight to the parties' course of performance in interpreting the contract's timing requirements.
Wellesley Media's written contract with a vendor expressly requires payment within thirty days. The parties' prior dealings allowed sixty-day payment without complaint. When payment arrives at day forty-five, the court gives greater weight to the express term than to the course of dealing and finds a breach.
Express terms receive greater weight than course of performance, which in turn receives greater weight than course of dealing or usage of trade. The parties' principal purpose is also given great weight when ascertainable.
Each validly marked ballot must be treated the same way statewide. Varying or standardless procedures that cause similarly marked ballots to be counted differently violate equal protection because they deny equal weight to each vote.
A fit parent's determination about third-party visitation is entitled to special weight. A court may not override that decision based solely on its own best-interests assessment without according the parent's judgment the required deference.
…in which abortions are performed, but may not proscribe them entirely. This holding, we feel, is consistent with the relative weights of the respective interests involved, with the lessons and examples of medical and legal history, with the lenity of the common law, and with the demands of the profound problems of the…