RATIONALE:

Relevancy
1. End litigation
Judicial Notice
1. Convenience and expediency
2. Save time, labor and expense of obtaining evidence
Best Evidence Rule
1. Prevent fraud/mistake
2. Protect against misleading inferences
3. Avoid risk of entrusting to somebodys copy the words
of a document
Parol Evidence
1. Presume that they made the writing the only
repository and memorial of the truth
2. Give stability to written agreements
3. Remove temptation and possibility of perjury
4. Written instrument is more reliable and accurate than
human memory for purposes of establishing the terms
of agreement
5. Spoken words are notoriously unreliable
Marital Disqualification
1. Identity of interests
2. Consequent danger of perjury
3. Guard the security and confidence of private life
4. Danger of punishing one spouse through the hostile
testimony of another
Dead Mans Statute
1. Guard against temptation to giving false testimony on
the part of the surviving party
2. Put parties upon terms of equality in regard to giving
testimony
3. Designed to close the lips of the plaintiff when death
has closed the lips of the defendant
Marital Privilege

1. Preserve peace in the families, secured the hallowed

confidences
2. All confidential communication between them NOT
admissible for either of them to expose as witness
Attorney-Client
1. To encourage full disclosure of all pertinent matters by
the client to the attorney
2. For the administration of justice
Doctor-Patient
1. To encourage full disclosure by the patient to the
doctor of all facts, circumstances and symptoms so
that the physician may form a correct opinion and be
enabled to safely and efficaciously treat his patient
Priest-Penitent Privilege
1. To preserve the sanctity of the confessional institution
State Secrets
1. Public policy
Security of Bank Deposits
1. To encourage people to deposit funds in banks
Newsmans Privilege
1. To facilitate free flow of information to the print media,
as an exercise of freedom of the press
Admissibility of Admissions
1. No man would declare anything against himself unless
such declarations were true
Compromise
1. Lack of relevancy
2. Public policy
Res Inter Alios Acta
1. One should not be bound by the acts of a stranger
because such would be unfair
2. A mans own acts are binding upon himself

Admission by Silence
1. He who is silent appears to consent
2. Failure to deny what is asserted in the presence of a
party is an implied admission of truth of statement
Unadmissibility of Character
1. Compel to meet changes of which inducement gives
him no information and confuses defense
2. Person may not always act in conformity with his
character
3. Modes of life may change
4. A man may be a notorious criminal but he may still be
innocent of the crime charged on trial
5. Defendant is entitled to be tried only for the crime
charged now
Hearsay
1. Lack the trustworthiness and reliability
2. Not given under oath
3. Not subjected to cross examination
4. Not proof of the fact in question, but merely shows
what another person has said as to such fact
Dying Declaration
1. Necessity death makes it impossible for him to take
the witness stand
2. Trustworthiness not prone to invent a story
Declaration Against Interest
1. Necessity only mode of proof available
2. Trustworthiness
3. Men will not falsify to their pecuniary prejudice
4. Persons do not make statement disadvantageous to
them without substantial reason to believe that they
are true
Pedigree
1. Natural expression of persons who must know the
truth
2. Necessity many years ago and known only to few
persons

3. Circumstantial trustworthiness no special reason for

bias
4. Greater evil might arise from rejection of proof
Family Tradition
1. Necessity sole method of proof
2. Familiarity to matters of family history, tradition and
repute, and no ill motive
Common Reputation
1. Necessity Inherent difficulty of obtaining evidence
2. Trustworthiness falsity can be corrected by other
testimony
Res Gestae
1. Trustworthiness Mental power for deliberation in
concocting matters are controlled and stilled by
startling occurrence
2. Necessity more convincing
3. Events speak thru the mouth of the declarant
4. Act is frequently indicated by what was said by the
person engaged in the act
5. Utterances are devoid of self-interest
Entries in the Course of the Business
1. Trustworthiness high degree of accuracy (reliability);
errors easily detected; additional risk of censure or
disgrace
2. Necessity best available evidence
Official Records
1. Necessity inconvenience and difficulty/impossibility
of requiring officials attendance due to numerous
transactions in the course of his duty
2. Trustworthiness presumption of regularity of
performance of official duty
Commercial Lists
1. Necessity inaccessibility of the persons responsible
for the compilation; tremendous inconvenience to
summon all parties

2. Trustworthiness no motive to deceive; no commercial

or professional value if inaccurate compilation; general
reliance by the public
Learned Treatise
1. Necessity unavailability of expert witness or
tremendous expense of hiring them; no knowledge of
ordinary witness
2. Trustworthiness no motive to misrepresent
3. Collecting learning from past transmitted to us
4. No bias for any party litigant
5. Work is carefully scrutinized by members of his
profession
Prior Testimony
1. Necessity prevent failure of justice
2. Trustworthiness given in a former action under oath
Opinion Rule
1. Expediency
2. Convenience
Expert Witness
1. Firsthand knowledge of the situation or transaction
Ordinary Witness
1. Difficulty of describing the circumstances which
established identity
2. Facts showing insanity in its entirety frequently elude
accurate, complete and detailed statements
3. Inferences based from minute facts and details which
the witness cannot fully and properly describe or
produce in court
Burden of Proof
1. Promotes social policy
Presumption
1. Probability
2. Procedural convenience
3. Fairness in attaching the burden of evidence
4. Social and economic policy

Examination in Open Court

1. Transparency
2. Secure for the adverse party the opportunity to cross
examine
3. Enables
the
judges
to
obtain
elusive
and
incommunicable evidence of witness deportment
while testifying
4. Allows only questions directed to eliciting testimony
relevant to and competent to prove the issue of the
case
5. To enable the court to gauge the credibility of
witnesses
Oath or affirmation
1. Conscience of the witness will be affected
2. Compel witness to speak the truth
3. Lay witness open to punishment for perjury
Against Testimonial Compulsion
1. Right to forego testimony, to remain silent, unless he
chooses to take the witness stand
Direct examination
1. Present sufficient evidence to support claim or defense
2. Persuade the court regarding truthfulness and
accuracy of the testimony, credibility of the witness
3. To elicit from witness any important fact bearing upon
the issue
Leading Questions
1. Likely to mislead witness acquiesced to false
suggestion
2. (Allowed on Cross) Friendly relations between witness
and examining counsel
Exception Bad Character (Impeachment of own witness)
1. Because you vouch for your own witness
Cross Examination
1. To weaken the effect of the direct testimony
2. Witness is more or less uncooperative

3. Accuseds right to confrontation

4. To test the truth of statements of a witness made on
direct examination
5. To test the credibility and accuracy of testimony
Re-direct examination
1. To rehabilitate the credibility of the witness explain
and supplement the answer
2. To prevent injustice to the witness and the party who
called him
3. To
complete
answer
or
correct
possible
misinterpretation of testimony
4. To disclose the motive by which the witness was
induced to use some expressions in the cross
Re-cross Examination
1. To overcome the other partys attempts to rehabilitate
an already impeached witness
2. To rebut damaging evidence brought out on cross
Rehabilitation of witness
1. To restore the witness credibility which has been
impeached during cross examination
Prior Inconsistent Statements
1. You must first call his attention to the subject, and he
should have an opportunity to recollect the facts and if
necessary, to correct the statement already given, or
to explain the nature, circumstances and meaning of
his previous statement
2. Avoid unfair surprise to adverse party
3. Save time
4. Give witness chance to explain discrepancy

1. Public policy
2. Raise collateral issues
3. May confuse or mislead the court, prolonging the trial
Ancient Documents Rule
1. Common convenience
2. Great difficulty of proving the due execution of a deed
Public documents as evidence
1. Necessity practical impossibility of requiring the
officials attendance
2. Trustworthiness sense of official duty; publicity of
record; presumption of regularity
Irremovability of public record
1. Removal would make it impossible for the time being
for others to use the records
2. Constant additional wear and tear upon the document
3. No legal means of obtaining the document
4. Records cannot be transferred from place to place to
serve a private purpose
5. Delay and hinder the official use of the files
Offer of Evidence
1. TO show the court the relevance of the testimony
2. To inform the court what the party making the offer
intends to prove so that the court may rule
intelligently upon the objections
3. (For purpose) To prevent evidence, which is admissible
only for one purpose, from being inserted into the
record for consideration of the court, surreptiously or
clandestinely for another purpose

Exclusion of Witness
1. To elicit the truth
2. To prevent the collusion and concert of testimony
among witnesses
3. To prevent the testimony of one witness from being
influenced by that of another

Objection
1. Fair and workable administration of exclusionary rules
of evidence when judge is promptly informed
2. (Timely objection) To stop an answer to a question put
to a witness, or to prevent the recipient of a document
in evidence until the court has ruled as to its
admissibility

Similar Acts

Specify Ground of Objection

1. To enable the judge to know the ground of objection so

that hey may rule intelligently without searching for
possible objections
2. To allow the party offering the evidence to withdraw
and substitute unobjectionable evidence
3. To obviate defects if possible
4. To allow the appellate court to know the basis of the
ruling of the lower court and to decide the case on a
point not raised by the parties or considered by the
lower court
Striking Out Answer
1. It usually happens that during the trial, despite the
alertness of the counsel, a witness answers the
question with alacrity before the adverse party had the
opportunity to voice fully his objections.
Tender of excluded evidence
1. To enable the appellate court to examine the rejected
evidence
2. To determine whether the exclusion of evidence was
proper or not
Proof Beyond Reasonable Doubt
1. It is better that ten guilty persons escape than one
innocent person suffer
2. Conviction must be based on evidence
Extrajudicial Confessions Supported by Corpus Delicti
1. Some people like to confess everything
2. To compel proper investigation by the authorities
Circumstantial Evidence
1. Necessity
2. If only direct evidence is allowed, very few convictions.
3. Based on rational grounds of everyday logic