Courts & Process
What a Limitation Period Is Actually For
Time limits on bringing claims look arbitrary until you consider what happens to evidence and to people's lives while a claim sits…
Courts & Process
How a claim moves, what evidence does, and what the timelines look like.
20 articles · updated August 11, 2026 · page 1 of 2
Courts & Process
Why Most Disputes End Before Anyone Sees a Courtroom
The overwhelming majority of civil claims settle, and the reasons are structural rather than a matter of anyone losing their nerve.
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Courts & Process
Without Prejudice and What the Phrase Is Protecting
The words appear at the top of settlement letters for a specific structural reason that has nothing to do with sounding formal.
Courts & Process
Burden of Proof and Standard of Proof Ask Different Questions
One decides who has to persuade the decision-maker, and the other decides how thoroughly. Confusing them muddles almost every…
Courts & Process
What Evidence Actually Does in a Dispute
Evidence is not about being right. It is about making a decision-maker able to find in your favour, which is a narrower thing.
Courts & Process
The Letter Before Action and Why It Comes First
Sending a formal letter before starting proceedings is expected in many systems, and it serves purposes beyond simple courtesy.
Courts & Process
Disclosure: Handing Over the Documents That Hurt Your Case
Civil procedure in many systems requires parties to produce relevant documents including the unhelpful ones, and the reason is…
Courts & Process
Costs: Why Winning Is Not Always Winning
The money spent reaching a judgment can exceed what the judgment delivers, and the rules on who pays vary enormously between…
Courts & Process
Mediation, Arbitration and Litigation Are Three Different Machines
They resolve disputes in fundamentally different ways, and choosing between them determines cost, privacy, speed and who decides…
Courts & Process
Why Small Claims Procedures Are Deliberately Simplified
Systems designed for modest disputes strip out procedure on purpose, because the full apparatus would cost more than the claim is…
Courts & Process
A Judgment Is Not the Same as Getting Paid
Winning a case establishes an entitlement. Converting that entitlement into money is a separate process with its own difficulties.
Courts & Process
Witness Statements and Why Memory Is Treated Cautiously
Courts have become steadily more sceptical about recollection, and the reasons come from research rather than from any suspicion of…