Admission and Dispute: Facts Settled Without Proof

Abstract

This volume asks whether a party's failure to dispute a fact shifts the boundaries of relief. A judicial confession and a deemed confession change the scope of the hearing at the fact-finding instance, but silence, a plea of lack of knowledge, and a legal evaluation cannot all be treated as the same acknowledgment. The path to relief opens where the requirements for a confession, a dispute, and a fact notorious to the court are distinguished and, where the statutory conditions for revoking a confession are met, that revocation is given effect, and closes where a judicial confession remains valid and the statutory requirements for revocation are not met, so that the path to denying that fact again is blocked. The six sections address, in turn, the hearing effect of a confession, facts not clearly disputed, statements of lack of knowledge, non-appearance and notice, revoking a confession, and facts found in other judgments. The strongest counterargument is as follows. It is unjust for facts that differ from reality to bind the court merely because of a party's mistake. The evaluation of the memory and credibility of statements and the comparison of statements against the court record are not addressed in this volume.