Several legal doctrines have been adopted to give binding effect to judicial decisions.

Res Judicata

Res judicata or the doctrine of claim preclusion treats a prior judgment between the same parties or their privies involving the same claim as conclusive in subsequent litigation bettween the same parties on the same claim.

Collateral Estoppel

Collateral estoppel or the doctrine of issue preclusion prevents relitigation of issues previously decided when such issues arise in a subsequent litigation on a claim that is not otherwise barred by res judicata.

Judicial Estoppel

Judicial estoppel, also known as the doctrine of preclusion of inconsistent positions, prevents a party from contradicting his previous declarations used in the same proceeding or in subsequent proceedings, if the contradiction is made for the purpose of benefiting that party, disrupting the proceeding, or committing a fraud upon the court.

Full Faith and Credit

A state recognizes a judgment entered in another state's court under the Full Faith and Credit Clause, Article 4, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution and under the constitutions of various states. Full faith and credit also is given to judgments from another state under the Full Faith and Credit Statute, 28 U.S.C.S. § 1738, and state law rules for enforcing judgments.

Law of the Case

The law of the case doctrine limits relitigation of an issue once it has been decided in prior stages of the same litigation.

Copyright 2010 LexisNexis, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc.