Hearing (law) 1097011 223547843 2008-07-04T15:40:42Z Zorrobot 7218328 robot Adding: [[no:Høring]] {{otheruses3|Hearing}} In law, a '''hearing''' is a [[proceeding]] before a [[court]] or other decision-making body or officer.<ref name="Lorch000">{{cite book | title = Democratic Process and Administrative Law | first = Robert | last = Lorch | publisher = Wayne State University Press | year = 1980 | id = ISBN 0814315135 }}</ref> A hearing is generally distinguished from a [[trial (law)|trial]] in that it is usually shorter and often less formal.<ref name="Lorch000" /> In the course of [[litigation]], hearings are conducted as [[oral argument]]s in support of [[motion (legal)|motion]]s, whether to resolve the case without further trial on a [[motion to dismiss]] or for [[summary judgment]], or to decide discrete issues of law, such as the admissibility of [[evidence (law)|evidence]], that will determine how the trial proceeds. Limited evidence and [[testimony]] may also be presented in hearings to supplement the legal arguments.<ref name="Lorch000" /> In the [[United States]], one aspect of the "[[Due Process Revolution]]" is that many [[administrative law|administrative]] decisions that were once made much less formally must now be preceded by a hearing. An important step in this development was the [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]] decision in ''[[Goldberg v. Kelly]]'', 397 U.S. 254 (1970). There the Court held that an [[government agency|agency]] could not terminate a recipient's [[welfare (financial aid)|welfare]] benefits without a [[pre-termination]] hearing. The decision also illustrated that what constitutes a "hearing" can depend on the context. In ''Goldberg'', the goal of a speedy decision was held to "justify the limitation of the pre-termination hearing to minimum [[procedural]] safeguards," which included such basic matters as the right to [[appear]] and to [[cross-examination|cross-examine]] witnesses, but did not include "a complete [[record]] and a [[comprehensive opinion]]". ==References== {{reflist}} ==See also== *[[Congressional hearing]] *[[Due process]] *[[Jury trial]] *[[Lawsuit]] (another type of legal proceeding) *[[Preliminary hearing]] *[[Trial by ordeal]] *[[Unofficial hearing]] *[[continuance]] {{law-term-stub}} [[Category:Criminal law]] [[Category:Legal terms]] [[da:Afhøring]] [[es:Audiencia]] [[no:Høring]]