# possession is nine-tenths of the law?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possession-is-nine-tenths-of-the-law/39581>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 3, 2000, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possession-is-nine-tenths-of-the-law/39581 "2000-11-03T18:10:07Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![scottws](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/839c29/32.png) [@scottws](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scottws)\
**Post date:** [November 3, 2000, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possession-is-nine-tenths-of-the-law/39581/1 "2000-11-03T18:10:07Z")

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I’ve heard the phrase “possession is nine-tenths of the law” used in the  
sense that “If I have it, I own it.” I contend that it means  
“Nine-tenths of laws is concerned with possession/ownership issues.” Is  
this not the case? The other way makes no sense; otherwise, possesion of  
stolen merchandise would not be prosecutable.

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**Author:** ![zev\_steinhardt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/97f17d/32.png) [@zev\_steinhardt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zev_steinhardt)\
**Post date:** [November 3, 2000, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possession-is-nine-tenths-of-the-law/39581/2 "2000-11-03T18:13:38Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by scottws \*  
> \*\*I’ve heard the phrase “possession is nine-tenths of the law” used in the  
> sense that “If I have it, I own it.” I contend that it means  
> “Nine-tenths of laws is concerned with possession/ownership issues.” Is  
> this not the case? The other way makes no sense; otherwise, possesion of  
> stolen merchandise would not be prosecutable. \*\*

First of all, **ScottWS** , welcome to SDMB.

The saying does not mean that if you have it you own it. All it means is that if you have possession of an item, and I claim that it is, in reality, mine, the burden of proof is upon me to prove that it is mine. You do not have to prove anything.

So, if a store can prove that (a) they owned the item and (b) the “customer” did not pay for it, they can be prosecuted.

Zev Steinhardt

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**Author:** ![scratch1300](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dfb087/32.png) [@scratch1300](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scratch1300)\
**Post date:** [November 3, 2000, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possession-is-nine-tenths-of-the-law/39581/3 "2000-11-03T18:14:13Z")

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Most people don’t understand what it means. The older version of this saying is, "Possession is nine _points_ of the law. There was very recently a long discussion of it on [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=43303).