• Posts must be responsive to a fellow student’s original post. In these posts, the goal is to expand, supplement, contrast, or distinguish the main points from the student’s original post or the professor’s post. Post must be no LESS THAN 150 words and no MORE THAN 250 words.
• Citations are not required unless post contains material from a source. If so, then a properly formatted citation (APA or Bluebook) is required.
• The entire post must be original, in student’s own words. Any copied content from any source will result in a zero.

FELLOW STUDENT’S POST:

Geoffrey Beere

Week One – Post One

Chapter Nine – Types of Facts

           The facts of a case are one of the most important components used to determine the outcome of a case. When deciding how a case should be resolved, the court looks to see how the law applies to the specific facts of the case. The particular set of facts can basically make or break the case. There are several different categories of facts, namely: irrelevant facts; background facts; and key facts.

           Irrelevant facts are those facts that do not really have any legal importance because they are not needed to prove any element of the offense or cause of action in a case. Examples of irrelevant facts are things such as the color of a car in an automobile accident or the gender of the doctor in a medical malpractice claim. Another type of facts are background facts. These facts are used to provide the context and circumstances surrounding the event which gave way to the cause of action. Background facts are things such as a description of the location, the weather, and the time of day where and when the event took place. Lastly and most importantly are the key facts. These are the essential facts that are vital to the outcome of the case since they will be used to prove the case by showing how they apply to the elements of the rule of law. In a case having to do with an automobile accident, examples of key facts would include things such as: the speed of the vehicles; the color of the traffic light; was either driver issued a ticket; was either driver drinking alcohol, etc.