Also known as: testimony · testimonies · communicative evidence · witness statement
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
Evidence that compels a person to disclose thoughts, knowledge, or facts through communication. The category excludes physical evidence obtained without any communicative act by the individual.
After a bench trial, Tyrone Tran moves for a new trial under the interest-of-justice standard. The court grants the motion and schedules an additional hearing at which Tran must provide testimony explaining his actions on the night in question. That testimony qualifies as communicative evidence that the court may consider in entering a revised judgment.
Talia Torres offers reputation testimony that the defendant is peaceful. On cross-examination the prosecutor inquires into a specific prior fight. The inquiry tests the basis of the reputation testimony without compelling the defendant himself to supply communicative evidence.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Thomas Thompson's lawyer learns after direct examination that Thompson's account of events was fabricated. The lawyer must take remedial measures because the false statements constitute communicative evidence offered by a client that the lawyer now knows to be untrue.
Tobias Thomas offers expert testimony linking chemical exposure to the plaintiff's symptoms. The court excludes the opinion because the expert's conclusions rest on an analytical gap between data and opinion rather than on reliable methodology supporting the communicative assertions.
After a nonjury trial, Tamara Tan moves for a new trial. The court opens the judgment and takes additional testimony from Tan concerning previously unaddressed documents. That testimony supplies communicative evidence the court may use in amending findings and entering a new judgment.
Tiana Tan requests that all non-party witnesses be excluded so they cannot hear one another's testimony. The court grants the order, preventing later witnesses from shaping their own communicative evidence based on what they hear from earlier witnesses.
Yes. The privilege shields a person from being forced to communicate thoughts or facts but does not bar compulsion to produce physical evidence such as fingerprints or blood samples.
Supporting sources
A lawyer may continue when the anticipated testimony relates solely to an uncontested issue. The rule balances the need for an advocate familiar with the case against the risk that the lawyer-witness will appear to vouch for disputed facts.
Supporting sources
A judge may not conduct an independent investigation of facts outside the record, such as personally testing a product and comparing the results to the expert testimony presented at trial.
Supporting sources
Yes. The rule prohibits counsel from supplying facts from personal knowledge unless the lawyer takes the stand and subjects those facts to cross-examination.
Supporting sources
…Marbury's commission the President appointed him a justice of the peace; and the seal affixed by the Secretary is conclusive testimony of the verity of the signature and of completion of the appointment and that the appointment conferred a legal right to the office for five years; (2) having this legal title he has a…