Lessons · Law foundations · defences, as a list
A defence is a list too
A defence either knocks out one of the claim's own elements or stands on its own list of elements that the defendant has to make out.
Hone is a place to practise a career, one idea a day. This is one of its lessons, written out in full and free to read without an account.
What it is for
Two answers to the same complaint look identical from a distance and are worlds apart in the work they create. One says the claim is missing an element, and the file stays where it is. The other says even if it is all true, here is why it fails, and that one comes with its own evidence to gather.
How to think about it
For each defence, ask which kind it is. If it attacks an element, write which element. If it stands alone, write its elements down the page like any other list and find who has to prove them.
Worked example
Kind one: it attacks an element of the claim.There was no duty. There was no agreement. The claim never gets off the ground.
Kind two: it accepts the claim and defeats it anyway.Even if every element is shown, this rule ends it. Consent, permission, or time having run out.
Write out its elements, one per line, exactly as for a claim.A defence with three elements and two shown fails the same way a claim does.
Note who has to prove it, because it is often not the same side.That single note changes what the file has to go and collect.
Your turn
Write the term for a defence the defendant must plead and prove, rather than one that attacks an element.
A defence the defendant must plead and prove: an defence
Solve one, graded on the server
The trap
Listing every defence that could conceivably be raised. A defence nobody pleaded is not in the case, and a page of them buries the one or two that are.