Navigating Hearsay Exceptions: Understand Your Legal Options
Hearsay exceptions. Let’s talk about them. Hi, my name is Carl Birkhead. I’m a Tulsa criminal attorney with Wirth Law Office in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I’ve been practicing family and criminal law for almost eight years now, and I want to help you make law easy by talking a little bit about when hearsay is actually admissible in court.
So, just a brief recap: a hearsay statement is a statement that’s made outside of the courtroom that is then being offered inside of the courtroom for its truth. Now, this only applies if you don’t have the person who made the statement on the stand testifying. You can talk about anything that you have said outside of the court. You could also say in court on the stand under oath, but your buddy Bill, if he’s not there, you can’t testify about what he’s talking about.
Recording and Memorializing Events
Now, there are some exceptions to that rule. One of them is if you’ve made a record or some sort of recording of the event in question, and now, even though time has passed and you don’t actually fully remember it or remember it with enough detail to be able to talk about it, you can use the record that you made at that time.
So, let’s go with, let’s say, you’re the witness to a crime, and you’re at a gas station, and it gets robbed. Let’s just go with a simple example like that. And then you immediately went home and wrote it all down in like your diary or something. I don’t know, maybe you still have a diary.
Utilizing Previous Statements
Or you immediately went home, and you texted it all to your buddy Steve. Like some sort of memorialization of the event, even if it was just like you had your phone out and you were recording it, but for whatever reason, the trials, it’s now trial time, and it could be years later sometimes between the event and the actual trial. Your memory is not always going to be there. So, the actual statement can be read out instead, or I guess the video shown instead.
Now, this doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s being admitted into evidence, but it does mean that whatever you wrote out describing the event, including whatever happened, was said, whatever, it’s still admissible. It can be read out loud. It’ll be used to jog your memory. And now and then, it can be admitted into evidence if, basically, the rule is if the other side is using it.
Admissibility and the Other Side’s Use
So, if it’s something that was yours, but the other side wanted to use it, then they can admit it into evidence. Otherwise, it’s just going to be read into the record. But either way, it does get in, and it does get you where you need to go.
Schedule a Low-Cost Strategy Session
If you have questions about this, or you’re about to go on the stand, and you’re not sure what you can and cannot talk about, give me a call. My name is Carl Birkhead. I’m a Tulsa felony attorney with Wirth Law Office, and I want to help you make law easy. Call 918-879-1681 to schedule a low-cost initial strategy session. Let’s make the law easy for you.
