The past tense of the verb maintains the term sustained. The Latin word sustinere, which means “to hold from the base,” is the verb’s root. The Old French changed it to support. Then Middle English modified it as sustenance. Sustained in a legal context is to “uphold the validity or correctness of.”
As an illustration, the judge upheld the prosecutor’s objection. It is demonstrable that the judge accepted the lawyer’s skepticism or complaint and supported it. In a legal setting, “sustained” refers to something backed up, supported, validated, or acknowledged as true or appropriate. The situation above arises when one of the two attorneys casts doubt on the clauses or arguments stated by the other attorney.
Table of Contents
What are the rules of evidence?
When the jury decides on a case’s outcome, the rules of evidence specify what can and cannot be taken into account. Although there are many evidence rules, they can often be distilled down to just a few principles:
Only facts that witnesses personally observed may be presented. This seems quite evident, considering how useless testimony would be if witnesses were free to say whatever came to mind. However, this is a little difficult to apply. Witnesses are permitted to make statements such as “I observed the blue automobile run a red light before hitting the pedestrian.” Still, they are not allowed to make statements such as “The driver of the blue car should go to jail since he ran a red light and injured someone,” as this would be their opinion. Additionally, when representing clients, asking questions that imply an incident occurred, like “Where did the blue automobile go through the red light?” is not permitted by law.
Every witness must be open to cross-examination. During cross-examination, one lawyer attempts to elicit lies or other issues with a witness’ testimony. The purpose of the right to cross-examine is to make sure that every piece of testimony is thoroughly investigated before being presented to a jury. It derives from the 6th Amendment right to confront your accuser. Because the other person cannot be cross-examined, “hearsay testimony,” or testimony concerning what someone else told the witness, is typically not permitted. There are, however, several exclusions to this rule.
When a judge pronounces “sustained,” what does that mean?
If you don’t have a law degree, you might wonder what these words and phrases signify because they are used frequently in legal contexts. Without the proper background information, you can hear terms like “sustained” or “overruled” in a trial and be confused about what they mean.
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Knowing the definitions of sustained and other terms can help you stay informed of what is happening and being spoken around you, which is particularly crucial if your case is being heard in court.
Trial Procedure
The prosecution must provide evidence at the trial to establish the defendant’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
The defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty, and different charges will require other elements to be established as true or false. When in a trial practice judge agrees then witnesses will be called to the stand during the trial and subjected to cross-examination by both parties.
What does the Court Judge do?
The judge in a courtroom will have the final say about whether or not something spoken in court will be upheld. If the court feels that the questions posed are unfair or contentious, they can order that some statements be struck from the record.
The judge’s role during a trial is to uphold the law and ensure justice is served. They get to evaluate whether or not the questions being asked in court are fair and pertinent, and they study and interpret all of the evidence presented in various instances. The judge participates in various matters and serves as a mediator in a court of law.
How does a judge decide on arguments?
Depending on her decision, a judge may either “overrule” the objection or “sustain” it. When a complaint is rejected, the evidence is correctly accepted into evidence, and the trial can continue. To ensure that the jury only hears information that has been lawfully admitted, the attorney must reword the inquiry if an objection is upheld or otherwise address the issue with the evidence. The jury should theoretically even ignore the wrong question, albeit it can be challenging.
Even if it is rejected, an objection is nonetheless significant to the proceedings. When a lawyer challenges some evidence, that challenge becomes part of the record. The attorney can appeal the judge’s judgment if he doesn’t agree. Even if the evidence was unlawfully allowed, the attorney forfeits his right to appeal if he fails to object.
In a courtroom, you will likely hear many words you don’t fully comprehend, but it can be helpful to know what is going on, particularly if you are the defendant.
There are two sides to any case in a courtroom: the defense and the prosecution. When a witness is being questioned in court by one side, the other side has the right to respond if they believe the questions being asked are pointless, repetitive, or speculative.
If they feel that the questions posed are accurate, they may oppose the inquiry and explain why. Here, you may hear terms like “objection, argumentative,” in addition to sustained which refers to the fact that the subject objects to the interrogator’s argumentative behavior.
The judge will answer with “overruled” or “sustained,” depending on whether or not they agree with the attorney’s objection. These two responses, ie. overruled and sustained will show whether the court accepts or rejects the complaint, and this is what will ultimately determine the outcome.
If the judge answers “sustained,” it is necessary to stop asking questions because the judge has accepted the objection. The person asking the questions must move on to the other prepared questions.
If the judge finds the question proper and has been phrased argumentatively, they might also be requested to reword it. The questioning may go on if the judge says, “Over-ruled,” instead of sustained which indicates that they have rejected the choice to object. The person asking the question might be obliged to repeat it, and they might also prompt the subject of the question to respond.