Decision - sustany/dvg GitHub Wiki

In the legal context, a decision is a judicial determination of parties� rights and obligations reached by a court based on facts and law. A decision can mean either the act of delivering a court�s order or the text of the court�s opinion on the case and the accompanying court order. The text of a decision usually includes a summary of the facts, a discussion of relevant laws, the court�s reasoning of how the law applies to the issues at hand, the court�s holding (or determination on the legal issues of the case) and the court�s orders. The order, usually at the end of the decision, tells the parties to a case or cases something that they should do.� Orders can deal with housekeeping matters, such as scheduling, or with something substantive and important, such as whether the case will be dismissed or not.� Decision is often used interchangeably with �judgment�, �ruling�, �opinion� and �order�.����

Some common uses of the term �decision� in the legal context include:

• �Interlocutory decision�, also called �interlocutory order�, refers to an order settling an intermediate matter while the case is still ongoing. This differs from a final decision which settles all matters of the case.
• �Appealable decision� is an order that can be appealed before a reviewing higher court (a court of appeals)
• �Final decision� or �final judgment� refers to a court�s decision that settles all of the parties� legal issues in controversy in the court.
• �Decision on the merits� or �judgment on the merits� is a judgment made based on facts and relevant substantive law of the case, rather than on technical or procedural grounds.