At the end of March, I spent five days in court conducting a trial. I was the lawyer for the Plaintiff, so the “burden of proof” rested on me (and my client). In practical terms, that meant that it was my responsibility to prove all the essential elements of my client’s case, on “a balance of probabilities.” Many people have heard that phrase, but for many people the notion of proof remains somewhat mysterious. What does it mean to say that something has been proven “on a balance of probabilities”?
