Define: United States

Everyone knows what United States means. Right?

28 U.S. Code § 3002 - Definitions

As used in this chapter:

...

(15) “United States” means—

(A) a Federal corporation;

(B) an agency, department, commission, board, or other entity of the United States; or

(C) an instrumentality of the United States.

The curious read from the top of the pages and notice it says "in this chapter". Okay, what is this chapter?

28 U.S. Code Chapter 176 - FEDERAL DEBT COLLECTION PROCEDURE

Qui Tam suit from PACER

  PACER website administrators disable search functionality for logons which are not used every quarter. PACER accounts are free, though there is a charge for usage.

  A party has filed a suit to obtain damages for defrauding the federal government by alleging Pfizer sold vaccines which did not work. After logging in to PACER, search for case 1:21-cv-00008. The long description is:
1:21-cv-00008-MJT United States of America ex rel. Brooks Jackson v. Ventavia Research Group, LLC et al

  When navigating PACER, you will be able to download the case docket files at URL https://ecf.txed.uscourts.gov/doc1/175011612028.

  In a qui tam action under the false claims act, the filing party or "relator" brings the case on behalf of the government. The case is initially sealed while the government decides to petition onto the case or to ignore the case. This case alleges the federal government was billed for coronavirus vaccines which did not work.

  The complaint introduction describes the direction of the lawsuit against defendants including Pfizer,

Developing a safe and effective vaccine against the novel Coronavirus (“COVID-19”) was a matter of urgency. But that urgency does not excuse cutting corners in clinical trials, wasting taxpayer dollars, violating federal regulations, and possibly endangering Americans’ health. Defendants Pfizer Inc., Icon PLC, and Ventavia Research Group, LLC (collectively, “Defendants”) conducted a clinical trial to test one of the COVID-19 vaccine candidates. In the race to secure billions in federal funding and become the first to market, Defendants deliberately withheld crucial information from the United States that calls the safety and efficacy of their vaccine into question. Namely, Defendants concealed violations of both their clinical trial protocol and federal regulations, including falsification of clinical trial documents. Due to Defendants’ scheme, millions of Americans have received a misbranded vaccination which is potentially not as effective as represented. The vaccine’s U.S. Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) authorization resulted from a deeply flawed clinical trial that violated FDA regulations. Defendants have profited from the COVID-19 pandemic at the expense of the United States and its citizens by abusing the scientific process.

Trump Residence Search Warrant

The federal Southern District of Florida court has posted the unsealed search warrant and property receipt for Trump's Mar-A-Lago residence. This is case 22-8332-BER.

The order to unseal the redacted filing.

Redacted search warrant. The witness description may be of interest to some readers.

Define: Misprision

The common definition of misprision is neglect or wrong performance of official duty.

The federal definition is in 18 U.S. Code § 4 is

"Whoever, having knowledge of the actual commission of a felony cognizable by a court of the United States, conceals and does not as soon as possible make known the same to some judge or other person in civil or military authority under the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both."

While this may potentially be used against state/local officials who overlook crimes by government actors, it may be very difficult to get a federal indictment.

Define: Sole Actor Doctrine

Under the Sole Actor Doctrine a principal is charged with the knowledge of his agent.

It contemplates that agent must have ostensibly endeavored to benefit his principal, and even though he did not do so and his acts were for his personal benefit, possibly through defalcation, the third party who obligated himself must have been under the impression that he was dealing with the principal.
General American Life Ins. Co. v. Anderson, D.C. Ky., 46 F. Supp. 189. 195, 196, 198

It is based on the presumption that by reason of the relationship between an agent and his principal the principal is presumed to have been told everything the agent has done and presumed to have known of his actions and promises.
Federal Deposit Ins. Corporation v. Pendleton, D.C. Ky., 29 F Supp. 779, 782, 783
Black's Law Dictionary, Fifth Edition, p. 1248


This is taken from:

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff v. LEROY MUNCY, et al, Defendant

case # 4-07-cv-00435WRW

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF ARKANSAS, LITTLE ROCK DIVISION

2007 U.S. Dist. Ct. Motions 895686; 2008 U.S. Dist. Ct. Motions LEXIS 4130

April 21, 2008

Case Search for Federal Courts

Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) is an electronic public access service that allows users to obtain case and docket information online from federal appellate, district, and bankruptcy courts, and the PACER Case Locator.
 
PACER has a registration process which takes time to receive a mailed registration number. Start the PACER registration process now, to ensure timely access in the future.

Define: in rem

"in rem" relates to jurisdiction and means thing

A court which grants a divorce exercises in rem jurisdiction over the marriage.

Jurisdiction in rem

assumes the property or status is the primary object of the action, rather than personal liabilities not necessarily associated with the property

Define: Agency, standing, capacity

Agency law is concerned with any "principal"-"agent" relationship; a relationship in which one person has legal authority to act for another. Such relationships arise from explicit appointment, or by implication. The relationships generally associated with agency law include guardian-ward, executor or administrator-decedent, and employer-employee.

Standing, or locus standi, is capacity of a party to bring suit in court. State laws define standing. At the heart of these statutes is the requirement that plaintiffs have sustained or will sustain direct injury or harm and that this harm is redressable.
At the Federal level, legal actions cannot be brought simply on the ground that an individual or group is displeased with a government action or law. Federal courts only have constitutional authority to resolve actual disputes. Only those with enough direct stake in an action or law have "standing" to challenge it.
In contract law, a person's ability to satisfy the elements required for someone to enter binding contracts.  For example, capacity rules often require a person to have reached a minimum age and to have soundness of mind. 

Lawsuit Flow Chart

Jurisdictionary Lawsuit Flow Chart

Define: Collateral Estoppel

collateral estoppel
a judgment in one case prevents (estops) a party to that suit from trying to litigate the issue in another legal action. In effect, once decided, the parties are permanently bound by that ruling.

Define: judicial notice

Judicial notice is a method of introducing non-disputed facts into the record.

When a court takes judicial notice of a certain fact, it obviates the need for parties to prove the fact in court. ...
all legislatures have approved court rules that allow a court to recognize facts that constitute common knowledge without requiring proof from the parties.

On the federal trial court level, judicial notice is recognized in rule 201 of the Federal Rules of Evidence for U.S. District Courts and Magistrates. Rule 201 provides, in part, that "[a] judicially noticed fact must be one not subject to reasonable dispute in that it is either (1) generally known within the territorial jurisdiction of the trial court or (2) capable of accurate and ready determination by resort to sources whose accuracy cannot reasonably be questioned."

Under rule 201 a trial court must take judicial notice of a well-known fact at the request of one of the parties, if the court is provided with information supporting the fact. A court also has the option to take judicial notice at its discretion, without a request from a party.

Rule 201 further provides that a court may take judicial notice at any time during a proceeding. If a party objects to the taking of judicial notice, the court must give that party an opportunity to be heard on the issue. In a civil jury trial, the court must inform the jury that it must accept the judicially noticed facts in the case as conclusively proved. In a criminal trial by jury, the court must instruct the jury "that it may, but is not required to, accept as conclusive any fact judicially noticed." All states have statutes that are virtually identical to rule 201.

Define: declaratory relief

Declaratory relief is a judge's determination (called a "declaratory judgment") of the parties' rights under a contract or a statute, often requested (and highly desired) in a lawsuit over a contract. ... resolution of legal rights will resolve some or all of the other issues in the matter.


Declaratory relief refers to a judgment of a court which determines the rights of parties without ordering anything be done or awarding damages. By seeking a declaratory judgment, the party making the request is seeking for an official declaration of the status of a matter in controversy.


... empower the court, in the event of an "actual controversy" to "declare" the parties' rights and obligations before the dispute had otherwise ripened into a full-blown action for, perhaps among other things, breach of contract. The rights and obligations of "any interested person" may, according to the statute be declared "under a deed, will or other written instrument, or under a contract", or "in respect to, in, over or upon property" and certain other specific, property-related matters.
Declaratory Relief is "cumulative"; it is available, in the same lawsuit, with other forms of relief.
... Declaratory Relief operates only prospectively; that is, it declares the parties' rights and obligations in the future. The remedy is not available at all where no future relations were contemplated by the parties but, instead, all that confronted them was a completed act of alleged wrongdoing.

Define: demurrer

demurrer is a formal objection to the legal sufficiency of an opponent's pleading. It asks for a judgment in the demurring party's favor due to a failure to state a cause of action.

Define: writ of mandate

A petition for writ of mandate, also commonly known as a petition for a writ of mandamus, is a document filed with a court that requests an order directing a governmental agency or representative to perform a required function. In the alternative, a petition for writ of mandate can be filed seeking a court to order a governmental agency or representative to stop doing something that it has no legal authority to do in the first instance.

Define: appurtenant

appurtenant adj. pertaining to something that attaches. In real property law this describes any right or restriction which goes with that property, such as an easement to gain access across the neighbor's parcel, or a covenant (agreement) against blocking the neighbor's view.

Define: stare decisis

Stare decisis is the policy of following rules or principles laid down in previous judicial decisions ...

To abide or adhere to decided cases. It is a general maxim that when a point has been settled by decision, it forms a precedent which is not afterwards to be departed from.

Define: tacking

In real estate law, tacking is the combination of possession periods by different adverse possessors.

Federal Rules Of Evidence

Federal Rules of Evidence control judges and lawyers. State rules are typically modeled on these Federal rules.

The Federal Rules of Evidence (FRE) is a code of evidence law governing the admission of facts by which parties in the United States federal court system may prove their cases, both civil and criminal. The Rules were enacted in 1975, with subsequent amendments.

... the purpose of rules of evidence is to regulate the evidence that the jury may use to reach a verdict.
... the Rules center on a few basic ideas – relevance, unfair surprise, efficiency, reliability, and overall fairness of the adversary process. The Rules grant trial judges broad discretion to admit evidence in the face of competing arguments from the parties.


These rules govern the introduction of evidence in proceedings, both civil and criminal, in Federal courts. While they do not apply to suits in state courts, the rules of many states have been closely modeled on these provisions.

Evidence overview.

Volunteer For Experience

It has been suggested to volunteer at an organization that provides legal aid or legal services for the poor.  In some states, paralegals may present benefit denial cases before a judge.

Define: res judicata

res judicata, res adjudicata

matter already settled in court; cannot be raised again