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prima facie

Prima facie is Latin for "at first sight,” or “on the face of it.”

Prima facie is used in court to indicate that there is sufficient or adequate evidence to support a claim . More simply put, a prima facie case means that the claim being presented to a court has merit, when taken at face value. 

A prima facie case is the establishment of a legally required rebuttable presumption . In other words, a prima facie case is a cause of action or defense that is sufficiently established by a party's evidence to justify a verdict in their favor, provided such evidence is not rebutted by the other party.

Prima facie evidence/claims are used in criminal courts, as well as civil courts, most commonly in tort law. In fact, various torts will typically have prima facie cases attached to them. In a prima facie tort claim, the plaintiff first provides evidence that a tort was committed by the defendant , then the burden of proof shifts to the defendant to disprove they committed the tort. 

[Last reviewed in January of 2025 by the Wex Definitions Team
] 

Keywords

• tort law

• criminal law

• evidence

• burden of proof

• trial

• PRIMA FACIE

• Trespass

Wex

• THE LEGAL PROCESS

• evidence

• wex definitions