Burt v. . Smith’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

26 federal appellate · 107 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 168 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “A malicious prosecution is one that is begun in malice, without probable cause to believe it can succeed, and which finally ends in failure.”

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. DiBlasio v. City of New York · Bradick v. Israel

2. ““Probable cause does not necessarily depend upon the actual guilt of the person prosecuted, but may rest upon the prosecutor’s belief in his guilt when based on reasonable grounds. One may act upon what appears to be true, even if it turns out to be false, provided he believes it to be true and the appearances are sufficient to justify the belief as reasonable.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Mills v. Erie Railroad

3. “[p]robable cause is the knowledge of facts, actual or apparent, strong enough to justify a reasonable man in the belief that he has lawful grounds for prosecuting the defendant in the manner complained of.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Engel