Relevance A fundamental rule of evidence is that evidence must be relevant to be admissible.[1] Federal Rule of Evidence 401 stipulates that evidence is relevant if “it has any tendency to make a fact more or less probable than it would ...

Introduction One of the cornerstones of the United States’ criminal justice system is the principle that every person is “innocent until proven guilty.” The tool by which guilt is proven is evidence. This, of course, applies to civil cases as ...

When a door-to-door salesman sold a 73-year-old Florida widow a five-year subscription to four magazines in 1969, neither party expected to end up before the United States Supreme Court. Leila Mourning signed the magazine order which required her to pay ...

Who knew that candy could cause so much controversy? The first paragraph of a 2017 New York Post article read, “A Manhattan woman who bought a 3.5-ounce package of Junior Mints felt cheated after claiming to find that the candy filled just ...

Terry Dean Rogan was pulled over, arrested, and placed in a Texas jail four times over the course of two years based on an outstanding California warrant for a robbery and murder that he didn’t commit. How could this happen? ...

Consumer credit reports have changed in many ways over the past fifty years. Before that, credit reports were fraught with inconsistencies and inaccuracies. It was routine for lenders to refuse to extend credit to consumers because of erroneous information in ...

Introduction On March 15, 1962, President John F. Kennedy sent a special message to Congress which included a call to action on behalf of American consumers.[1]  The message proposed a Consumer Bill of Rights which included: (1)  the right to safety, ...

In our first presentation, we looked at three of the most common real estate contract provisions, their purposes and how they operate. This presentation continues with a discussion of some more provisions. A sample contract with all these provisions is ...

While the basics of real estate agreements and sales are covered in other presentations, this presentation will focus on common clauses in real estate contracts. We will discuss the natures of the clauses and their purposes. In the text below ...

Owning a home has an almost mythical quality as part of the “American dream.” The process of negotiating, agreeing and executing the transfer of real estate, though, can be long, complex and fraught with risk for both sides. This program ...