When speaking to a judge in court, what do barristers mean by &quot;May I take instructions?&quot; I know what instructions to a barrister are, BEFORE court. When it is appropriate to use a barrister, the barrister is sent ‘Instructions' (when asked to give an opinion on a case) or a 'Brief' (if the barrister is to appear in court). Good instructions should give background on a case and will generally include the following: Who you are and whom you act for Who your dispute or potential dispute is with, and the nature of it (e.g. ‘unfair dismissal claim by former employee’ or ‘boundary dispute’) A brief background which usually sets out the relevant events in chronological order Any relevant deadlines (e.g. limitation dates, hearing dates or time limits for serving evidence) What you want the barrister to do There are no set rules on how the instructions or briefs should appear or what papers should be sent. However, where you are asking counsel to draft pleadings or appear in court, you should consider the following additional points: But &quot;instructions&quot; appear to mean something else, when blurted by the barrister himself IN court TO a judge! What's this second sense of &quot;instructions&quot;? Geoffrey Robertson QC in British Board of Film Classification, R (on the application of) v Video Appeals Committee [2008] EWHC 203 (Admin) (24 January 2008) MR ROBERTSON: May I take instructions on another matter? MR JUSTICE MITTING: Certainly. (Pause) Paul Bowen (now KC) in Public Interest Lawyers Ltd, R (On the Application Of) v Legal Services Commission [2010] EWHC 3259 (Admin) (05 November 2010) MR BOWEN: May I take instructions? Gavin Millar QC in MGN Ltd &amp; Ors, RE Application for Leave To Appeal [2011] EWCA Crim 100 (25 January 2011) MR MILLAR: May I take instructions so that I can find out what our position is? THE LORD CHIEF JUSTICE: Yes, by all means. I am speaking for myself -- and if my colleagues have anything to say on it they will say so themselves -- my only concern relates to the five people we have called the &quot;young witnesses&quot;. David Blundell (now KC) in Fawcett, R (on the application of) v Health Safety Executive [2012] EWHC 2364 (Admin) (24 February 2012) MR BLUNDELL: I am very grateful for that judgment, may I take instructions for a brief moment? There was a consultation on the point that I am going to address your Lordship, I am taking instructions on in just a moment. MR JUSTICE BEATSON: Whilst you are getting instructions let me explain to -- can you wait a minute? What I have done is you have failed but if you heard what I said then you will see and I have not made an order of costs against you, and of course Mr Blundell may try to persuade me that I ought to, but I have not because of what I have said in the judgment. Yes Mr Blundell? MR BLUNDELL: In fact I will just take instructions. (Pause) My Lord I am very grateful for the indication your Lordship has given. Those behind me have taken instructions, we are not going to seek to persuade your Lordship to make any other order. Richard Moules in Wheeler v Norfolk County Council [2014] EWHC 2232 (Admin) (13 June 2014) MOULES: Indeed. May I take instructions on one final matter? Your Lordships do have discretion not only to quash the order, but also to remit the matter back. Insofar as my client has incurred costs resisting Mr Dixon's application in the Magistrates', that matter falls due to be decided. MR JUSTICE CRANSTON: Do you want time to think about it?
Lawyers cannot act for their client without instructions. &quot;May I take instructions&quot; is a request by the barrister to have a conversation in confidence with their client about what to do next or how to respond to the court. Sometimes this is just a momentary discussion, but if necessary, this can even result in the court standing down for a short break, or fully adjourning to another day. It is not a euphemism used to disparage the client.
David Siegel's answer correctly explains how appellate courts consider laws and arguments not addressed in the courts below. To clarify on the comparison to the Court of Cassation, though: A trial court is generally limited to considering the facts that are properly introduced by the parties, though a court may also take &quot;judicial notice&quot; of certain facts that are highly unlikely to be disputed. On review, courts of appeal are generally limited to facts supported by the evidence in the trial-court record, though they may also take judicial notice of other facts. A party is generally unable to introduce new evidence during an appeal. It is not correct that an appellate court will not review factual determinations, as those reviews probably happen in more cases than not. But -- just as with legal determinations -- those reviews can happen with varying levels of deference. For instance, if a case is tried to a jury, an appellate court will be exceedingly deferential to the jury's factual determinations, on the theory that the jury is best positioned to evaluate the evidence, gauge credibility, make reasonable inferences, etc. A judge who makes a factual determination based on in-court testimony will enjoy a similar measure of deference. But if a court makes a factual determination based only on documents submitted in support of a motion, or otherwise lacks an opportunity to evaluate a witness in person, the appellate court will be more open to different interpretations of the evidence. Legal determinations are likewise subject to varying levels of deference. At one end is the abuse-of-discretion standard. If a trial court determines that evidence is admissible or inadmissible, for instance, an appellate court will apply the abuse-of-discretion standard, which (to oversimplify) asks not whether the ruling was incorrect under the controlling law, but whether the ruling was reached without regard to the controlling law. On the other end is de novo review, in which the appellate court gives virtually no deference to the trial court and undertakes its own independent legal analysis. Perhaps even more deferential is plain-error review, which asks (to oversimplify) whether the trial court's error is so apparent that it barely needs to be debated. If the error is obvious enough (and satisfies several other criteria), the appellate court may reverse the trial court.
These are different terms for initiating documents. What one court or jurisdiction calls a petition, another might call an application. &quot;Complaint&quot; may not have a technical meaning in some contexts or jurisdictions, but often it is used to refer to the initiating document at a specialist tribunal. There are other names for initiating documents: notice of civil claim, notice of action, etc. There is no way to know which terms have a technical meaning and what those meanings are without looking to the rules and practice in a particular jurisdiction. &quot;Indictment&quot; is an initiating document in a criminal prosecution. But there are also &quot;informations&quot; (generally implying lesser charges).
Was/is it permissible for judges in the US to talk ex-parte like that? No. Ex parte interactions of that sort are not allowed. See, for instance, Disciplinary Counsel v. Bachman, 2020-Ohio-732 (Dec. 18, 2020) and Maze v. Judicial Conduct Commission, 2019-SC-0691-RR (Dec. 17, 2020). An example of less recent decision but with a reporter citation number is Comm'n on Judicial Performance v. Bozeman, 302 So.3d 1217 (2020). For situations of imminent risk of irreparable harm, procedural law provides for ex parte motions and ex parte petitions, such as this granted petition for Personal Protection Order. See M[ichigan]CR 3.7003(G). But the scenarios you depict fall short of the necessity for which ex parte provisions are intended. do the above scenes in the movies essentially portray judicial misconduct? Yes. A judge's house is inappropriate for communicating, let alone ex parte, his ruling (I am not knowledgeable of the films but my understanding of your description is that that judge made the ruling on the application). As for The Untouchables, any evidence of jurors' &amp; judges' conflict of interest and likely bias has to be filed in court and comply with procedural law so that all parties have an opportunity to litigate the matter.
According to Consumer Rights 2015, is there a deadline from when the issue is raised to the trader to then taking action to fix it, or is it based on what deadline I set on my letter? The &quot;deadline&quot; is one that is reasonable in the circumstances. See s.23 of the Act: [...] (2) If the consumer requires the trader to repair or replace the goods, the trader must— (a) do so within a reasonable time and without significant inconvenience to the consumer, and (b) bear any necessary costs incurred in doing so (including in particular the cost of any labour, materials or postage). [...] (5) Any question as to what is a reasonable time or significant inconvenience is to be determined taking account of— (a) the nature of the goods, and (b) the purpose for which the goods were acquired. [...] If I do send a letter, for instance, notifies him for court, to which address should I send it to? His official one in gov.uk, where he claims he didn't notice or his yard? The Civil Procedure Rules Pre-Action Protocols do not dictate where such a letter (referred to a letter before claim and described here and here) must be served but the usual requirement is to an address at which the potential defendant resides or carries on business within the UK. See Rule 6.8(a) for example.
There are two important points you need to consider: jurors cannot be challenged (in the US sense), and the judge has wide discretion to handle any problems that arise in his court. If a juror has prior knowledge of the case, or could not be expected to be impartial, the judge (or sometimes the bailiff) will excuse him, and bring in one of the three replacements. If either side's lawyers dislike the look of a juror, they may if the judge allows ask questions to elicit such reasons, and then ask the judge to disqualify (I was on a jury where one of my colleagues was a policeman, and the defence suggested that he could not be impartial; the judge asked some questions and then excused him, and I understand he was never actually empanelled that week). But you are not permitted to select jurors you think will favour you or (equivalently) to ask to dismiss a juror without a factual disqualification; you can't, for example, ask about a juror's politics. Disqualifying a juror is thus rare, and the chance of four jurors having ties to a particular case is so remote as to be not worth worrying about. The second point, and the reason why written authority is hard to find, is that the judge has almost unlimited discretion over any action in his Court that does not infringe statute. There was a case in the newspapers recently where a juror discussed the case he was hearing in the pub, and was therefore dismissed from the jury; the judge consulted prosecution and defence and decided to proceed with eleven jurors rather than start the trial again. This does not mean that 'any trial can be heard with eleven jurors'; it means that in that particular case justice was best served by continuing. There is always the option to request a mistrial (which may or may not be granted) or to say that, a fair trial now being impossible, you intend to appeal on this point; but failing that the judge's decision on any procedural point is binding.
Laws are different around the world and you didn't bother to state your location, but typically no- this is not how the system works. What would be the point? There's no defendant. You, the plaintiff would argue against thin air and then what? The court rules in your favour, declares this illegal, and nothing happens because there's no defendant. Is it so you can use this ruling if you find out later? Pretty sneaky. Let's look into how this would actually work. You bring up a case- Jackson vs a mannequin or something. You make your arguments. The defense makes literally no defense. The judge rules in your favour, with a result of nothing as there is no defendent. Next, you find the culprit and bring a case against them. You point out that this is illegal because we came to that decision last week. What's that defendant? An argument against it being illegal? Too bad, the decision has been made. When I posted this answer, it was before the &quot;Nyah, I was ranting about government spying but was deliberately vague- aren't I clever?&quot; comment and I assumed it was against, say, a neighbour but it doesn't really matter. You cannot have a system that makes a judgement without a defendant so it can be applied later.
Overview This would not be uniform for all courts, even in a single state, nor would it be the same for all kinds of evidence. Also, few rules regarding the timing of disclosure of evidence are absolute. A judge's handling of a request to introduce late disclosed evidence is reviewed for abuse of discretion, not de novo, on appeal, so a judge is afforded some leeway in how the general rules are applied. In General Jurisdiction Courts In courts of general jurisdiction (i.e. those that handle large claims), disclosure of evidence well in advance of trial is the norm. The two big deadlines are usually the close of discovery (a deadline usually set in the pre-trial process), and to a lesser extent, the deadline for disclosing a final set of witnesses and exhibits shortly before trial in immediate pre-trial disclosures. (There are parallel deadlines at different steps in the process for adding new parties to a lawsuit and for raising new legal issues.) There are two main exceptions to that principle. Impeachment, Rebuttal And Authentication Evidence One is that evidence for impeachment of someone else's testimony or rebuttal to something offered by the other side, especially if the statement to be impeached or rebutted was unexpected (e.g. when the testimony to be impeached or rebutted comes from a third-party witness not in close coordination with either party), is generally allowed even in the absence of disclosure. Late disclosure of evidence solely necessary to authenticate evidence that has already been disclosed is likewise usually treated very leniently. The Good Cause Exception The other is that late introduction of evidence is usually allowed only for &quot;good cause&quot; (e.g. the evidence was only discovered or only came into being at the last minute). And, in &quot;good cause&quot; cases, often the other side will be given the opportunity to continue the hearing or trial to allow them additional time to prepare to respond to the new evidence (an opportunity that most litigants will waive in practice to avoid the long delay associated with getting a new trial date). An analysis of &quot;good cause&quot; also considers the prejudice to each side of excluding the evidence and the materiality of the evidence. For example, if the late evidence is something created by the defendant, even if it wasn't formally disclosed, a judge is much more likely to allow it to come in than a judge is if the other party has never seen the evidence before. Similarly, a judge will often be quite lenient about late disclose of exhibits that merely compile or summarize evidence that has already been disclosed because it is not prejudicial and could save time. Judges are also loath to exclude highly material &quot;smoking gun&quot; evidence that would otherwise be admissible and clearly resolve the case on the merits, but are likely to rebuff efforts to introduce evidence not disclosed in a timely motion if it is cumulative or secondary in importance or addresses only a satellite or collateral issue or credibility in general. A judge is more likely to admit late disclosed evidence if the other party was in some way responsible for its late discovery (e.g. by excluding it from an index in a case where the volume of documents disclosed was voluminous, or encouraging a third-party not to disclose it). Judges are less lenient towards late disclosed expert witness testimony than they are to admit late disclosed fact witness testimony. Limited Jurisdiction Courts and Special Proceedings In courts of limited jurisdiction (especially small claims court), in contrast, there is often little or no pre-trial disclosure of evidence and new evidence can be presented at any time until you &quot;close&quot; your case (either because you say you are done presenting evidence or because the judge limits the time you have to present evidence and cuts you off). Requirements to disclose evidence in advance also tend to be more lenient in specialized proceedings (e.g. probate disputes, evictions, foreclosure, mental health proceedings) and is usually absent in evidentiary hearing of pre-trial relief (like evidentiary hearings to determine if a court has jurisdiction, temporary restraining orders and pre-judgment attachments) in cases in general jurisdiction courts. Post-Trial Relief Proceeding Exceptions It is sometimes possible to introduce newly discovered evidence as late as a motion for post-trial relief (or even in an even later motion to set aside a judgment), but usually, the very latest point at which you can introduce evidence is the close of your case at trial (in the case of a plaintiff, often at the halfway point in a trial as a plaintiff is not always permitted to present new evidence after the defendant closes his or her case). Consequences Of Evidence Disclosure Deadlines Evidence disclosure deadlines provide important value by preventing the previously common practice of &quot;trial by surprise&quot; that often led to unjust results. But, the idea that there is a time limit on disclosing evidence is quite counterintuitive for the average person because it is contrary to how people usually prove things to other people in every day life which is more of a dialog and less of a one sided presentation. Failing to follow these requirements, or not realizing their importance and finality, is one of the most common ways that people not represented by counsel make mistakes that impair their chance of prevailing at trial. Many litigants who are unfamiliar with the courts have a very hard time understanding that there is a deadline for disclosing evidence prior to trial, and often, even in trial, will say things like &quot;I have this evidence that I could show you to show that I'm telling the truth&quot; when in reality, at trial, it is your last chance to present evidence and you can't supplement your evidence after the fact.