Also known as: reasonable bases · reasonably based · reasonable basis standard
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A threshold of justification or evidentiary support that a reasonable person would accept as adequate for the action or position taken. The standard requires concrete grounding in facts, law, or circumstances rather than speculation or conjecture.
Ravi Reddy sued a supplier for breach and denied in the answer that any delivery had occurred. The supplier produced shipping records showing the goods arrived. Because the denial lacked support in the evidence or a stated belief based on incomplete information, the court found the filing violated the reasonable basis requirement and imposed sanctions.
Ryan Roberts and Rosa Ruiz each operated factories that discharged distinct pollutants into a river, harming separate sections of a downstream fishery. Because the harms were distinct and a reasonable basis existed to divide responsibility according to each factory's contribution, the court held each defendant liable only for the portion of damages each caused.
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Riley Rivera and Renata Russo both released chemicals that combined to contaminate a single aquifer. Evidence showed measurable differences in the volume and toxicity each contributed. The court found a reasonable basis for determining each party's share of the total harm and apportioned damages accordingly rather than imposing joint liability.
Roger Ramirez, a California resident, was served with process while temporarily in New York on business. The court examined whether his brief presence supplied a reasonable basis for exercising personal jurisdiction consistent with traditional notions of fair play. Finding the contacts sufficient under the governing test, the court upheld jurisdiction.
Ridgeway Partners, a political committee, allocated administrative expenses between federal and nonfederal accounts. The allocation rested on a reasonable basis tied to the proportion of federal versus state activity. The court upheld the method as satisfying the statutory requirement for a reasonable division of costs.
Raven Logistics faced allegations of misconduct by a senior executive. The Attorney General referred the matter after determining a reasonable basis existed to believe further investigation was warranted. The special division appointed an independent counsel to proceed with the inquiry.
Rule 11 requires factual denials to be warranted on the evidence or reasonably based on belief or lack of information. The tax substantial authority standard measures whether the position has a greater than 20 percent likelihood of success if litigated. The two standards serve different procedural and substantive goals and are not interchangeable.
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Apportionment is allowed when the harms are distinct or when evidence supplies a reasonable basis for dividing a single harm according to each party's contribution. Without such a basis, joint and several liability applies. The Restatement sections supply the governing tests.
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The reasonable basis inquiry focuses on whether the defendant's relationship to the forum supplies a fair ground for exercising jurisdiction. It incorporates traditional notions of fair play and substantial justice but is not limited to the defendant's own purposeful contacts. Courts may consider the relationship even when forum law would not impose liability.
Supporting sources
…or, if that does not work, referring it to the Attorney General, whereupon the whole process would recommence and, if there was "reasonable basis to believe" that further investigation was warranted, that new offense would be referred to the Special Division, which would in all likelihood assign it to the same independent counsel. It…