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Legal fictions are assumptions of fact used to facilitate a fair resolution of a legal situation. They cannot challenge the law or obstruct justice. They are used to avoid cumbersome handling of a court case and can be challenged if they result in a mistrial. Examples include corporate personality, adoption, and handling wills and probate.
A legal fiction is a presumption of fact that is intended to facilitate a fair resolution of a legal situation. Legal fictions are employed for convenience or when a case could not be resolved without adopting such a fiction. They cannot be used to challenge the law or obstruct justice.
When a court adopts a legal fiction, it makes an assumption based on information available in a case or assumes a fact in order to facilitate the hearing of the case. Sometimes the statement isn’t actually true, but is assumed to be true for court purposes. People have the opportunity to challenge the assumption if they believe it would result in a mistrial.
There are a number of situations where creating a legal fiction may be necessary to enforce the law or solve a case. It is not uncommon to use a legal fiction to avoid cumbersome and tortuous handling of a court case. If a fact can be assumed to be true for court purposes, it can more efficiently move the case toward a speedy and appropriate resolution.
A classic example is the corporate personality. Before the widespread development of companies, if people had legal grievances with companies, they could sue the owners or partners directly. Once the companies started incorporating, there was no one to sue, so the legal fiction of corporate personality was created to provide plaintiffs with someone to sue.
Another situation arises in adoptions. When adoption paperwork is processed, the child’s birth parents become, for legal purposes, strangers, while the adoptive parents become the child’s parents. This legal fiction does not erase the genetic connection between the child and the biological parents. Facilitates the adoption process by providing adoptive parents with rights and responsibilities related to the child.
Handling wills and probate can also involve legal pretenses. One situation that can cause problems with estate management is simultaneous death, where couples die together in accidents or catastrophes. If the contents of the wills conflict with each other, it must be decided which of the two died first and which takes precedence. Since it is not possible to literally find out which person died first, the court creates a legal fiction so that assets can be distributed appropriately.
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