What are the legal standards of proof in civil litigation?

In civil litigation, legal standards of proof are the amount of evidence that must be presented to establish a fact or prove a point. In Alaska, the standard of proof used in civil disputes is the preponderance of the evidence, also known as the “more likely than not” standard. This standard requires that a party is more likely than not to be correct in their assertion, as opposed to the criminal law standard of “beyond a reasonable doubt”. For the preponderance of the evidence to be established in civil litigation, the plaintiff must present evidence that is both relevant and persuasive. This means that the evidence presented must logically support the claim that is being made, and it must be significant enough to convince the court that the claim is true. Evidence can come in many different forms such as witness testimonies, documents, expert opinions, and photographs. The preponderance of the evidence standard is unique in civil litigation because it is flexible and does not require absolute certainty that the claim is true. In Alaska, the court will take into account circumstantial evidence that could point away from the claim and still find preponderance of the evidence if the circumstances still support the claim. When this standard is used, the plaintiff is obligated to prove their claim by a “preponderance of the evidence”, rather than an absolute certainty.

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What are the legal standards of proof in civil litigation?

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