case of first impression

Information about case of first impression

"First Impression" can also refer to a video game named Neon Genesis Evangelion: First Impression.


A case of first impression is a case or controversy over an interpretation of law never before reported or decided by that court. There is no binding authority in a case of first impression.

A case of first impression may be a case of first impression in only a particular jurisdiction. In that situation, courts will look to holdings of other jurisdictions for persuasive authority.

Where no persuasive authority exists, a judge will look to legal analogies, legal commentary, legal briefs of the parties, and his or her own legal logic.

In some situations, a case of first impression may exist in a jurisdiction until a reported appellate court decision is rendered.

For example, when e-mail came to be used in business settings, if some party was sued by another, at some point someone would use the contents of some of the e-mails as evidence in their case. The other side may challenge the use of e-mail in such a case, questioning the validity of the material in question (e-mail, like any electronic document, can be easily fabricated, in fact, it is probably easier to forge e-mail than paper documents). Now, the first court to be asked whether e-mail is valid as evidence would be seeing the question as one of first impression.
CASE may stand for:
  • Computer-aided software engineering
  • Community for Alternative Sources of Energy
  • Centre for Apologetic Scholarship and Education at New College, UNSW
  • Centre for Astronomy & Science Education at The University of Glamorgan

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controversy or dispute is a matter of opinion over which parties actively disagree, argue, or debate. Controversies can range in size from private disputes between two individuals to large-scale disagreements between societies.
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LAW may refer to:
  • Lightweight Anti-tank Weapon, like the M72 LAW (US Army) and the LAW 80 (British Army)
  • Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights (also known as LAW)
  • League of American Bicyclists, formerly known as the League of American Wheelmen

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Law reports or reporters are series of books which contain judicial opinions from a selection of cases that have been decided by the courts.

The term reporter
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court is a public forum used by a power base to adjudicate disputes and dispense civil, labour, administrative and criminal justice under its laws. In common law and civil law states, courts are the central means for dispute resolution, and it is generally understood that all
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precedent or authority is a legal case establishing a principle or rule that a court or other judicial body adopts when deciding subsequent cases with similar issues or facts.
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jurisdiction (from the Latin ius, iuris meaning "law" and dicere meaning "to speak") is the practical authority granted to a formally constituted legal body or to a political leader to deal with and make pronouncements on legal matters and, by implication, to
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The holding is a court's determination of a matter of law based on the issue presented in the particular case. In other words: under this law, with these facts, this result. See Ratio decidendi.
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Persuasive precedent (also persuasive authority) is precedent that is not a binding precedent on the court under common law legal systems such as English law; but the judge may consider that it is the correct principle, so he is persuaded that he should follow it.
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Analogy is both the cognitive process of transferring information from a particular subject (the analogue or source) to another particular subject (the target), and a linguistic expression corresponding to such a process.
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A brief (latin "brevis", short) or factum (latin for "act" or "deed") is a written legal document used in various legal adversary systems that is presented to a court arguing why the party to the case should prevail.
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Logic (from Classical Greek λόγος logos; meaning word, thought, idea, argument, account, reason, or principle) is the study of the principles and criteria of valid inference and demonstration.
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In law, an appeal is a process for making a formal challenge to an official decision.

The specific procedures for appealing, including even whether there is a right of appeal from a particular type of decision, can vary greatly from country to country.
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E-mail (short for electronic mail; often also abbreviated as e-mail, email or simply mail) is a store and forward method of composing, sending, storing, and receiving messages over electronic communication systems.
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