Burden of proof

1. The duty of a party to substantiate an allegation or issue,either to avoid dismissal of that issue early in the trial or to convince thecourt of the truth of that claim and hence to prevail in a civil or criminalsuit. 2. The duty of a plaintiff, at the beginning of a trial, to make a primafacie showing of each fact necessary to establish the existence of a cause ofaction; referred to as the duty of producing evidence (also burden of evidenceor production burden). 3. The obligation to plead each element of a cause ofaction or suffer a dismissal; referred to as the pleading burden.