Test (law)

In law, a test is a commonly applied method of evaluation used to resolve matters of jurisprudence. In the context of a trial, a hearing, discovery or another kind of legal proceeding, the resolution of certain questions of fact or law may hinge on the application of one or more legal tests. Tests are often formulated from the logical analysis of a judicial decision or a court order, where it appears that a finder of fact or the court reached a particular decision after weighing a well-defined set of circumstances. The underlying assumption is that evaluating any given set of circumstances under a legal test will lead to an unambiguous and repeatable result.