Clear and convincing evidence is a higher level of burden of persuasion than "preponderance of the evidence," but less than "beyond reasonable doubt."
It is employed intra-adjudicatively in administrative court determinations, as well as in civil and certain criminal procedure in the United States.
For example, a prisoner seeking habeas corpus relief from capital punishment must prove his factual innocence by clear and convincing evidence.
This standard is used in many types of equity cases, including paternity, persons in need of supervision, child custody, the probate of both wills and living wills, and many similar cases.
Clear and convincing proof means that the evidence presented by a party during the trial must be highly and substantially more probable to be true than not and the trier of fact must have a firm belief or conviction in its factuality.
In this standard, a greater degree of believability must be met than the common standard of proof in civil actions (i.e. preponderance of the evidence), which only requires that the facts as a threshold be more likely than not to prove the issue for which they are asserted.
This standard is also known as "clear, convincing, and satisfactory evidence"; "clear, cognizant, and convincing evidence", and is applied in cases or situations involving an equitable remedy or where a presumptive civil liberty interest exists.