yesterday i learned...

...what "prima facie" means. i have basically had a working definition of it for years now. in my world it means when a DHS client doesn't show up for a trial-either to establish their child as a ward of the court, or to terminate their parental rights-and the state goes ahead and presents evidence anyway and an order is made without the client having a chance to argue his/her side. but i had to do one of those yesterday and it always makes me feel weird, like the state is playing God or at least Big Brother, so i actually looked it up on wikipedia. this is what it said:

"In most legal proceedings, one of the parties has the burden of proof, which requires that party to present prima facie evidence of all facts essential to its case. If that party fails to present prima facie evidence on any required element of its case, its claim may be dismissed without any response by the opposing party. A prima facie case may be insufficient to enable a party to prevail if the opposing party introduces contradictory evidence or asserts an affirmative defense. Sometimes the introduction of prima facie evidence is informally called making a case or building a case.
For example, in a criminal prosecution, the prosecution has the burden of presenting prima facie evidence of each element of the crime charged. In a murder case, this would include evidence that the defendant's act caused the victim's death, and evidence that the defendant acted with malice aforethought. If the prosecution were to fail to introduce such evidence, then its case would fail on grounds of "failure to make out a prima facie case," even without rebuttal by the defendant. This evidence need not be conclusive or irrefutable, and evidence rebutting the case may not be considered."

there was more, like other uses of the phrase. you can find it all here.