The Case Study Analysis
Legal proceedings or action refers to the process that a court uses to handle a case. This process may be civil or criminal, and it incorporates numerous reasons that reveal why a person relates with the case. In legal proceedings, a person may be accused of committing a crime, which he or she develops a desire of enforcing a right. Alternatively, in this court process, an individual may seek a remedy from a third party. In legal proceedings, it is common to find costs that relate with the process, which depends on jurisdiction and the category of the legal process.
In legal proceedings, an individual may require finding a lawyer, but in other circumstances, the presence of the lawyer is unnecessary. There is a variety of civil processes that an individual involves in; some differ greatly, but as long as they fall under the court system, they become legal proceedings. The steps incorporated in a legal process differ basing on jurisdiction and the desired outcome. Initiation of legal proceedings occurs when one party brings to court a document that request for a certain action or outlines a problem. In legal proceedings, they term the document as a demand, a motion or a request. In order to commence the legal proceedings, it is common for a certain amount of the fee be paid for the court to accept the document.
In legal proceedings, a person accused of crime leads to different operation in court. For instance, in such a case, a civil servant who is the prosecutor instigates the process. The legal proceedings determine the outcome of court fines or fees paid by the plaintiff or the accused. Based on the strictness of legal proceedings, it grants rules and rights that cover everyone including the defenders, courts and the accused (Abbott, 2006). For instance, in legal proceedings, such rules protect the accused person by giving him or her chance to defend and respond during a court session before it takes action against them.
In some circumstances, an individual can speed up proceedings, and when they violate the rights, the case can be dismissed. There are various types of legal proceedings; this may refer to legal process trial, a civil trial, administrative hearing, congressional hearing, court orders, receivership, foreclosure, and impeachment. In relation to our case study, Giles a farmer who supplies free-range eggs on a regular basis in dinning club, and Bolton hotel is in a situation whereby his supplied eggs had Salmonella infection. As a result, the infected eggs ended up killing a grandmother, and rendered other guests ill in Victoria’s wedding anniversary. This further leads to pushing blames to Tom, manager of the dinning club who was dismissed after the incident. Analyzing this incident, it should be mentioned first that this case involves the deceased person; second, it concerns individuals who got ill after the incident.
In this case, the supplier is also answerable for delivering eggs infected with salmonella. The dinning club manager Tom should be responsible for selling infected food to visitors. The types of legal proceedings associated with these facts include a civil trial. In this case, Victor and Victoria Silver can go to court seeking to get a remedy for their injured visitors. This type of case is filed in the judicial district court with the availability of jurisdiction to hear the case. Civil action will be a suitable legal proceeding that arises from these facts because it involves a couple who act as a party seeking for equitable or legal remedy.
Civil trial also suits this case because it protects and enforces legal rights of both the plaintiff and the accused persons. For instance, civil trial will give room for Tom and Giles who are accused people in this case to defend themselves before the court takes a legal action against them. On the other hand, civil trial also allows the defendants (Victor and Victoria) to press charges against the accused. The accused may further be ordered to pay fines or be jailed if found guilty by the court based on the offences. Civil action is also the ideal legal proceeding in this case because it handles cases that involve personal injuries. This can be applied to this case especially when visitors became ill after eating infected food at the wedding anniversary.
In addition, civil trials resolve private legal cases that face business, people, and other entities. It goes hand in hand with these facts because the case revolves around people who experienced a problem in a business setting. Legal process trial is another type of legal proceedings where parties come together in a dispute to present evidence in a tribunal, which in most cases is the court. This tribunal faces the judge in order to get a solution to their problem. The legal process becomes a jury trial when it involves community members in hearing the case. However, the legal process becomes a bench trial if it involves a judge, the accused, and defenders only.
For instance, the legal process trial can e based on the dispute where the court enforces an accusatory or adversarial approach to adjudicate innocence or guilt. The form of trial in legal proceedings applies to this case when it presents the truth through evidence. This becomes clear after hearing the prosecution and the defense side with the presence of a judge acting as a neutral referee. Similar to this case, this form of trial applies because; the prosecution will represent the couple. The accused Tom and Giles will be on the defense side to assist in finding the truth of the incidence.
The courts or tribunals in which such proceedings would be heard include district courts, court of appeal, and Supreme courts. The district courts are applicable in such proceedings because they have jurisdiction to handle approximately all categories that involve federal cases. Relating to this case study, it incorporates civil matters hence, can be heard in district courts (Sales, 2009). The person responsible in presiding cases in district courts is the jury.
The other type of courts that handle civil issues, which relates to our case study, is the court of appeals. This is because it receives and hears appeals from the district courts situated within its circuit. This implies that the couple’s case against Giles and Tom could be heard as a special case in court of appeal if it is from the same district court within the circuit. The person who presides on civil cases such as our case in court of appeal is the judge. For instance, this case involves death of one person, and others getting ill due to food poison caused by salmonella. The judge at the court of appeal is the appropriate person to handle such sensitive and difficult cases to find justice especially when the jury at district courts fails to meet a justified ruling.
The other court or tribunal that conducts legal proceedings, which relate to this type of case, is the Supreme Court. This court is the highest in the federal judiciary and with the help of the judiciary, it consist of the levels of federal courts. These two levels of courts under the Supreme Court include the appellate and trial courts. The person who presides on cases in Supreme Court is the chief justice. The justice associates assist the chief justice to handle cases such as the one in this legal proceeding, in trial and appellate courts. For instance, the appellate courts that handle this type of civil case are the court of appeal whereas trial courts involve district courts within the judicial districts.
The standard proof of these proceedings in courts would be proved in the following manner. First and foremost, the law system requires that a person injured as a result of food poisoning especially in this case where the cause is salmonella, to provide three factors to court as a prove for a successful and liable claim. The first aspect should reveal that the cause of food poisoning was via a contaminated food borne pathogen. This should reveal evidence to prove that the food pathogen and in this case salmonella, was present in food hence, resulting to illness and death of one person. This process can be done successful by the help of microbiological evidence that will provide a standard prove to show that food consisted of salmonella pathogens affected visitors who ate the meal at the dinning club. The second standard proof is the causation; the court will demand the plaintiff to present the actual contaminated food as evidence, which caused illness in victims and death of one person.
For instance, in this case, the court will require Victor and Victoria to present in court a mayonnaise prepared from infected raw eggs, which the hotel served the visitors. The third standard proof, which the court will require to assist in this case, is the damages. This implies that the defendant needs to come to court with at least one victim especially if the individual has physical injuries, to demonstrate the damages caused by food poisoning. The other evidence of such damages is when the victim occurs mentally affected as a result of consuming the contaminated food. The damage evidence can further be presented to court when the defendants prove to judge how the situation lead to lack of finance due to spending money on hospital bills.
The other standard proof that the court will use to find evidence in this case incorporates the variety of disciplines. These range from microbiology, medicine, epidemiology, food safety, sanitation, and agriculture. For instance, the court will apply microbiology to prove that salmonella poisoned the victims resulting to a single death. Agriculture applies in this case in that the court will require information on history and medical records of supplier Giles’s hens to identify the cause of salmonella infection. On the other hand, the court will require the hotel management to present its sanitation records, which will assist in determining how it risks the safety of customers. The other important prove is the medicine prescribed by doctors from hospitals.
p; It is vital for defendants to present the medicine in court to prove that salmonella content in food truly injured the victims subjecting them to medication. To prove that salmonella infected the visitors, witnesses who are the victims must provide medical records that reveal effects such as diarrheal illness or typhoid. This is necessary because the effect to salmonella food poisoning causes such illness to victims. The other proof of salmonella content in food is dehydration in victims. Victims may also suffer from bacteremia, al life threatening infection that which affects the brain, bones, and heart. Through the medical records, the court will be in a position to use this evidence as a standard prove in its legal proceedings that will lead to justice.
In respect to the above proceedings, the court or tribunal that handles appeals is the appellate court commonly referred to as the court of appeal. This involves any law court that has empowerment to hear an appeal of lower courts such as a trial or district courts. The jurisdiction of appeal courts further divides the courts system into three levels. The first level is the trial court; it hears cases, testimonies, evidence, and reviews. This helps the court to determine the case facts; the second level court under the court of appeal is the appellate court while the third level is the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court is commonly referred to as the court of final resort, which begins primarily by reviewing decisions made by intermediate courts.
The jurisdiction offered by Supreme Court is the highest in the rank of appellate courts (Langer, 2002). However, the authority of appellate courts to review the lower court’s decision differs widely from one jurisdiction to the other. The appellate courts may pose limited powers to review cases based on their location. Generally, appellate courts handle any appeal cases, and their judgment leads to a final decision to the appealed matter. Based on the above proceedings, the court requires any appealed action be affirmed, under gore revision, and be modified. Any appeals from lower courts receive final ruling in appellate courts because they correct errors made by such courts (Dickson, 2007).
Relating to the types of legal actions identified in question one, this paper will conclude by discussing the nature of the legal liability, and revealing the purpose or objective of taking legal action. For instance, starting with civil trial as a type of a legal action, their legal liability nature is evident when they incorporate remedies in their cases. This involves damages award, and injunction which may incorporate a penal element. The nature of civil laws also involves criminal liabilities such as fines, imprisonment, and orders that lead to community service. To explain the nature of legal liability clearly all the civil cases in legal proceedings involve human beings in cases to represent the company.
The purpose of taking such a legal action in civil trials is because the court cannot send a company to jail, but the responsible persons. For instance, in this case study, the legal proceedings of the civil case can send Tom to jail if proved guilty, but not the dinning club. The other type of legal action discussed is the legal process trial. It exhibits its legal liability nature when it allows both the prosecution side, and the defendant side to express themselves in the presence of the judge. The witness from both sides in the case makes the work of the judge easier through identifying the evidence and truth hence; leads to a fair justice. The nature of legal liability in the legal process trials is to involve two sides in the case, which is the prosecution and the defendant side.
In such cases, there must be evidence such as salmonella infected food to prove that it affected the victims. The purpose of taking legal actions in legal trials is to resolve a variety of legal disputes through following procedures, which share common features. For instance, in legal process trials, it is rare for a court to impose a penalty against an individual when they lack a lawsuit notice brought against them. This also applies to individuals who the court does not issue them with fair opportunities to present their evidence (Cooke, 2001). Through the legal process trial, the court ensures that it abides by the legal action to standardize information, evidence, and facts of cases presented by parties.
The purpose why the legal process trials take such actions is to maximize fairness of proceedings in court. This also accredit judges with great discretion be in a position to avoid rigidity of rules, and less discretion to avoid ruling that leads to favoring individuals based on the judge’s personal preferences. The other purpose of legal process trials is to distribute the best of judicial resources. This is through taking legal actions in a way that will provide opportunities to give first priority to cases that require urgency be heard first to enhance justice.
