evidence rules-of-court court court-records
What does it mean when a court case is &quot;dismissed&quot;?
<p>I've heard a number of conspiracy theorists say that court cases related to 2020 election fraud were &quot;dismissed without looking at the evidence&quot;.</p>
<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-election_lawsuits_related_to_the_2020_United_States_presidential_election#:%7E:text=After%20the%202020%20United%20States,Michigan%2C%20Nevada%2C%20Pennsylvania%2C%20and" rel="noreferrer">According to wikipedia</a> there have been 55 court cases related to the 2020 United States presidential election and of those 33 were &quot;dismisssed&quot;.</p>
<p>What does it mean when a case is dismissed?  Is evidence looked at 100% of the time in a dismissed case?  If not, how could I determine if a case related to the 2020 election had its evidence looked at before it was dismissed?</p>

<p>A case can be &quot;dismissed&quot; at (most) any time (however, the further along in the process a case is, the less likely a judge will allow a case to be dismissed without very good reason).</p>
<p>A case can be dismissed with or without &quot;prejudice&quot;, which in this legal context means essentially &quot;finality&quot;. A case dismissed with prejudice cannot be brought again, while a case dismissed without prejudice can be refiled. (Compare the criminal law concept of &quot;double jeopardy&quot;, though as phoog correctly notes, &quot;double jeopardy&quot; only applies in criminal trials, while prejudice can be applied in both civil and criminal courts).</p>
<p>Many cases are dismissed without looking at the evidence (or even having the evidence admitted to the record); this is called &quot;summary judgement&quot; or &quot;judgement as a matter of law&quot;. There are generally three cases when this happens:</p>
<p>First, if the prosecution or plaintiff (i.e. the party bringing accusations) has &quot;failed to state a claim upon which relief may be granted&quot;, i.e. asked for something the court cannot grant.</p>
<p>Second, is if the defendant can show, that even if everything alledged by the plaintiff is true, that the necessarily elements of the crime or offense have not been proven.</p>
<p>Third, is if there are no facts in dispute, and only a disagreement on interpreting the law.</p>

<p>It means that the case will not be heard in full, and it can happen for various possible reasons:</p>
<ul>
<li>The defendant files a &quot;motion to dismiss&quot; which is granted (for example if the plaintiff failed to comply with some court rule which makes the case irreparably unfair).</li>
<li>The plaintiff voluntarily drops the case (for example if a settlement with the defendant is reached).</li>
<li>The judge dismisses the case <em>sua sponte</em>, meaning without being provoked to do so by either the plaintiff or defendant (for example if the judge finds that his or her <em>state court</em> has no jurisdiction for a <em>federal matter</em> or <em>vice versa</em>).</li>
</ul>
<p>If the case is dismissed <em>with prejudice</em> then the plaintiff cannot bring forward the same case on the same grounds, whereas if it is dismissed <em>without prejudice</em> then the case can be heard again (for example if there was some court rule with which the plaintiff failed to comply or if the case was dismissed due to some error in the statement of claim, the plaintiff can fix such errors and try to litigate the case again).</p>
<blockquote>
<p>&quot;Is evidence looked at 100% of the time in a dismissed case?&quot;</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Not 100% of the time. If a case is dismissed simply because the court has no jurisdiction for the matter, it's possible that this conclusion was reached simply by the <em>statement of claim</em> and without looking at evidence <em>per se</em>, since the statement of claim, possibly combined with the defendant's motion to dismiss, may contain enough information for the judge to dismiss the case. Often some amount of evidence will be seen, but not 100% of the time.</p>
<p>In the future you can learn such terminology yourself on the webpage of the LII (Legal Information Institute) hosted by the Cornell Law School, for example the word <em>dismissal</em>  <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/dismiss" rel="noreferrer">is explained here</a>.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>&quot;If not, how could I determine if a case related to the 2020 election had its evidence looked at before it was dismissed?&quot;</p>
</blockquote>
<p>You could look at the court proceedings and see the judge's final written statement, which would usually say why the case was dismissed and may also give hints as to what evidence was considered (if any).</p>
