What does using judicial precedent mean?
The way the question is asked: USING judicial precedent, means that the judge is following the lead of a decision in a similar case that has already been decided upon and he is ruling the same way using the other case as a guideline. If the questioner meant to ask what does SETTING judicial precedent mean. . . that means that the judge was rendering a decision in a case of a type that had never been tried, or ruled upon, in the past, and that his verdict would set the ‘precedent’ by which all future cases might be judged. Judges, by the way, do NOT necessarily have to follow precedent in making rulings.
