MBE Evidence Practice Exam

A rebuttable presumption acts as a provisional rule that kicks in when the triggering fact is shown, but it isn’t a final resolution. Here, showing that a person has been missing for more than seven years creates a presumption that the person is dead. That presumption helps move the case along, but it isn’t conclusive. Once the presumption applies, the burden of production shifts to the party against whom the presumption operates. That party must bring forward evidence to rebut the presumption and show that the person is alive or that death hasn’t been established. The ultimate burden of persuasion, however—deciding whether death has actually occurred—remains with the party who would have to prove the death in the first place. The presumption can be overcome by contrary evidence. So the statement is correct because it accurately describes how a rebuttable presumption works: it shifts the burden of production but not the burden of persuasion, and it may be overcome by contrary evidence. The other options misstate how the burdens or the effect of the presumption operate.