Legal inference

Deduction By means of logical connectives, correct inferences can be derived in the sense of deductive reasoning. In general, for deduction, true axioms (postulates) are given and the conclusions drawn are again true. This is denoted a legal inference. 

Abduction is not a legal inference. If in Example 8.2 X were, for example, a conducting polymer, then the inference will be false. Apart from this, abductive inferences are very useful. Think of a medical or instrumental diagnosis. If certain symptoms are observed, then an assumed disease or instrument state becomes plausible. 

Induction is useful, but as for abduction, does not give a legal inference. The conclusion drawn in Example 8.3 that all metals are solid is inadmissible, for example, for the metal mercury. 

Most cases are settled out of court. Priest and Klein (1984, 2) and Viscusi (1986) report that only about 5 percent of civil disputes ever reach trial the rest are resolved through out-of-court settlement. If the legal disputes and trial cases were randomly chosen, inferences about the optimality of the litigation system could be made from trial resolution data. But, since people choose whether to litigate and litigants choose whether to go to trial, the cases that reach trial are not a random sample of disputes (Wittman 1985, 185, 212). As a result, studies of court decisions suffer from selecfion bias. 

We cannot infer from court decisions whether the underlying legal rules favor the defendant or the plaintiff because legal rules affecf the selection of disputes from the universe of accidents (and nonaccidents) as well as the outcome (Eisenberg 1990). That, in itself, would not be a problem if there were data about people s decisions to litigate and settle but, for the most part, trials are the only window on the liability system... 

Several readers have requested that we include legal comments with weapons articles. Any weapon you can name is illegal somewhere in this country. As responsible journalists, we would never suggest,Infer, or recommend that you break the law. All weapons in the PMA can be legally built and owned. Many of them do require special federal, state or local licenses/permits. This publication is read in several countries and by every type of individual from anti-gun watchdogs to professional machine gun manufacturers and dealers. It s pointless for us to belabor every possible legal aspect of every weapon covered. 

FRE 704 states (a) except as provided in subdivision (b), testimony in the form of an opinion or inference otherwise admissible is not objectionable because it embraces an ultimate issue to be decided by the trier of fact (c) no expert witness testifying with respect to the mental state or condition of a defendant in a criminal case may state an opinion or inference as to whether the defendant did or did not have the mental state or condition constituting an element of the crime charged or of a defense thereto. Such ultimate issues are matters for the trier of fact alone. (Importantly, ERE 704 does not permit expert witnesses to offer legal conclusions, or to directly express opinions about the credibility of other witnesses.)... 

The most adequate definitions of petroleum come from legal documents, where petroleum is defined directly or by inference (Speight, 1999,2000). 

K.R. Foster, D.E. Bernstein, P.W. Huber, eds. Phantom Risk. Scientific Inference and the Law. Cambridge, MA The MIT Press, 1993. (See legal discussions on toxic anxiety on pages 33 and 343 to 345. Note I would strongly recommend this book for a more technical presentation of risk assessment that the authors say occur at the interface of science and law. )... 

This litigation comes to us after the parties cross-motions for summary judgment, so we set out the facts in some detail. As the District Court noted, although the parties strenuously dispute the relevance and legal import of, and inferences to be drawn from, many aspects of this case, the underlying facts are largely undisputed. 554 F.Supp.2d 142,145 (Conn.2006). 

Ultimately, an attorney will seek technical opinions of the expert on issues in the case. Often sought are opinions with a reasonable degree of scientific and engineering certainty. In a legal sense, this infers a certainty of 51 % or greater. The question is whether the expert is more sure than not sure on an issue. It is not certainty in a statistical sense, where one uses a 95% or similar statistical confidence level in drawing inferences or conclusions from data. 

However it is possible to infer the standards that society has adopted for the level of due care to be shown by both parties. There is lengthy legal case law on the duties expected of trespassers and holders of land. 

A model of bilateral accidents can be constructed to compare the two systems of compensation. In estimating the model, data are available on the costs of workplace accidents, and the legal and administrative fees associated with the two systems of compensation. One can also make some reasonable inferences on how the probability of an accidents varies with the amount of care taken by both parties. What is generally unknown is the costs that both parties incur in taking care. 

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