Legal Definitions - hearsay

In legal terms, hearsay refers to a statement made outside of court that is presented in court to prove that what the statement claims is true. The fundamental issue with hearsay is that the person who originally made the statement (the "declarant") is not present in court to be questioned under oath. This makes it challenging to assess their credibility, memory, or sincerity, which are crucial for determining the reliability of evidence. Consequently, hearsay evidence is generally not allowed in legal proceedings.

However, there are specific situations, known as exceptions, where hearsay evidence may be admitted because the circumstances surrounding the statement suggest it possesses a sufficient level of reliability. These exceptions acknowledge that in certain contexts, an out-of-court statement is likely to be truthful, even without the original speaker being available for cross-examination.

Here are some examples illustrating the concept of hearsay and its exceptions:

• General Hearsay (Inadmissible):

  Imagine a witness in a car accident trial testifies, "My friend told me that the defendant was texting right before the collision."

  Explanation: This is hearsay because the witness is repeating what someone else said outside of court. If offered to prove the defendant was actually texting, it's inadmissible hearsay. The friend who allegedly saw the texting is not in court to be questioned about their observation, their memory, or their potential bias, making it impossible for the court to assess the truthfulness of the claim directly.

• Excited Utterance Exception (Potentially Admissible):

  Consider a situation where, immediately after witnessing a robbery, a terrified store clerk, still shaking, blurts out to the first police officer on the scene, "He was wearing a red mask and ran towards Elm Street!"

  Explanation: This statement, though made out of court, might be admissible under the "excited utterance" exception. The clerk made the statement spontaneously and under the stress of a startling event (the robbery). The immediacy and emotional impact of the event suggest that the statement was an unfiltered, truthful reaction rather than a fabricated account, making it likely reliable despite being hearsay.

• Statement Against Interest Exception (Potentially Admissible):

  Suppose a person, during a casual conversation with a neighbor, admits, "I know I shouldn't have, but I accidentally left the garden hose running all night, and now my basement is flooded." Later, the neighbor's basement also floods, and they sue for damages.

  Explanation: This out-of-court statement could be admissible as a "statement against interest." The person's admission of leaving the hose running directly implicates them in potential negligence and financial liability. People are generally unlikely to falsely make statements that are harmful to their own interests, which lends credibility to the statement even though it was made outside of court.

• Business Records Exception (Potentially Admissible):

  In a lawsuit against a construction company for a faulty building foundation, the plaintiff's attorney introduces the company's daily inspection logs, which consistently show that substandard concrete mixtures were used on specific dates.

  Explanation: These inspection logs are business records, created routinely and systematically by the construction company as part of its regular operations. Such records are generally considered reliable because they are made at or near the time of the events by individuals with knowledge, as a regular practice. Therefore, even though the individual who wrote each log entry might not be present to testify, the records themselves can be admitted as an exception to the hearsay rule.