Legal Dictionary of Pakistan
Quick lookup for English, Urdu, and Latin legal terms used in Pakistani jurisprudence.
burden of proof
1. A party's duty to prove a disputed assertion or charge. 0 The burden of proof includes both the burden of persuasion and the burden of production. - Also termed onus probandi. 2. Loosely, BURDEN OF PERSUA. SION."In the past the term 'burden of proof has been used in two different senses. (1) The burden of going forward with the evidence. The party having this burden must introduce some evidence if he wishes to get a certain issue into the case. If he introduces enough evidence to require consideration of this issue, this burden has been met. (2) Burden of proof in the sense of carrying the risk of nonpersuasion. The one who has this burden stands to lose if his evidence fails to convince the jury - or the judge in a nonjury trial. The present trend is to use the term 'burden of proof only with this second meaning Rollin M. Perkins & Ronald N. Boyce, Criminal Law 78 (3d ed. 1982).
middle burden of proof
A level of required persuasion, between the preponderance-of-theevidence standard and the beyond-a-reasonable-doubt standard, by which a party is required to prove a fact by clear and convincing evidence. See clear and convincing evidence under EVIDENCE.
shifting the burden of proof
In litigation, the transference of the duty to prove a fact from one party to the other; the passing of the duty to produce evidence in a case from one side to another as the case progresses, when one side has made a prima facie showing on a point of evidence, requiring the other side to rebut it by contradictory evidence. See BURDEN OF PROOF.