No, there is no law that says possession accounts for 90% of all evidence in a particular case. In fact, there are countless people in the prison population who believed that this phrase was legally true. However, you may be interested to know that there are California laws on adverse property that are quite close to this law. There are legal defences against criminal charges of possession of illegal drugs and possession of weapons or other weapons. An experienced defense attorney can advise you on the best strategy to combat these accusations. Implied possession is often involved in criminal cases. This legal theory expands the meaning of possession to include objects that are not in physical contact with the owner. This popular legal term is a phrase that means that property is easier to obtain when a person is in possession of something, and difficult to enforce when a person does not. Co-ownership occurs when two or more people share control of one or more illegal objects. For example, if two people live together and drugs are found in their home, both parties can be held liable.
In criminal cases, the charge of possession may also include conscious possession. Conscious possession requires the person to be aware that the items are illegal and that they are possessed by the person who knows about them. It is usually used in reference to being caught for committing a crime. If you are stopped by the police while carrying evidence such as drugs or weapons, people might say, “Possession is nine-tenths of the law,” believing that you have a 90% chance (because 9/10 (or “nine-tenths”) have a 90% chance of being charged and convicted of committing the crime. Conversely, criminals have often used this phrase to convince someone to commit a crime by explaining that if they hide or destroy evidence, there is a high probability of not being charged or convicted. But are these criminals really right? Or is this sentence completely wrong? Let`s find out more about this topic. A person who simply owns something does not necessarily have a right to the object nine times greater than someone else. Negative ownership allows an intruder to obtain a legal right to someone else`s land. But they must prove that they have openly owned and used the property for a certain period of time (five years), and they must have paid taxes on it during that period. At Wolf Law, we can help you understand your options, navigate the legal process, and protect your rights. The saying is not literally true that the law assumes that the person in possession has a claim nine times stronger than anyone else, but that it “puts the legal truth in a strong light that each plaintiff must succeed by the strength of his own title and not by the weakness of his opponent.” [3] The principle somewhat resembles uti possidetis (“as you possess, to continue to possess”), which currently refers to the doctrine that colonial administrative borders become international borders when a political division or colony gains independence.
Under Roman law, it was an interdictum that ordered the parties to retain possession of the property until it was established to whom the property owned. [4] The term essentially means that if you physically own something, you have a stronger legal right than someone who only claims ownership of it. Another way to put it is that custody presupposes ownership. And the first written version dates back to 1616, when Thomas Draxe wrote in his Bibliotheca Scholastica: “Possession is nine points of the law.” This referred to the fact that possession fulfilled nine of the eleven points that constituted proof of ownership at the time. Possession is nine-tenths of the law is a phrase that means ownership is easier to obtain if you own something, or difficult to enforce if you don`t. The phrase is also given as “possession is ten points of the law”, which is derived from the Scottish phrase “possession is eleven points in the law, and they say there are only twelve”. [1] Whether it`s a legal dispute, a registered marriage, or other litigation advice, we offer you the best ways to provide you with the best solution. The saying eventually evolved into what we know today as “possession is nine-tenths of the law.” In the Hatfield-McCoy feud, in which testimony was also divided, the doctrine that property is nine-tenths of the law led Floyd Hatfield to retain possession of the pig, which the McCoys claimed was their property. [5] It has been argued that, in some situations, property accounts for ten-tenths of the law.
[6] Although the concept is older, it is often claimed that the phrase “possession is nine-tenths of the law” dates back to the 16th century. [7] In some countries, possession is not nine-tenths of the law, but it is the responsibility of the owner to establish ownership. [8] It is important to note that the phrase “possession is nine-tenths of the law” is not literally true – it is a rule of force and perhaps a truism of human nature, but it is not a law. This concept has been applied to both tangible and intangible products. [9] In particular, “knowledge management” poses problems with regard to this principle. [10] Google`s possession of a large amount of content has led to some caution due to this principle. [11] It was said that there was a time when attitudes towards rights over genetic resources were that ownership was nine-tenths of the law, and for the other tenth the principle that biological resources were the heritage of humanity. [12] For example, a defendant found in possession of an illegal drug may escape conviction if the defence can prove that the defendant believed the drug was legal at the time.