rule of optional completeness. The evidentiary rule providing that when a party introduces part of a writing or an utterance at trial, the opposing party may require that the remainder of the passage be read to establish the full context. • The rule has limitations: first, no utterance can be received if it is irrelevant, […]
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The evidentiary rule providing that, to prove the contents of a writing (or a recording or photograph), a party must produce the original writing (or a mechanical, electronic, or other familiar duplicate, such as a photocopy) unless it is unavailable, in which case secondary evidence — the testimony of the drafter or a person who
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motion for directed verdict. A party’s request that the court enter judgment in its favor before submitting the case to the jury because there is no legally sufficient evidentiary foundation on which a reasonable jury could find for the other party. • Under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, the equivalent court paper is known
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no evidence. 1. The lack of a legally sufficient evidentiary basis for a reasonable fact-finder to rule in favor of the party who bears the burden of proof (there is no evidence in the record about his whereabouts at midnight). • Under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, a party can move for judgment as
The qualified privilege that a government can invoke to prevent disclosure of the identity and communications of its informants. • In exercising its power to formulate evidentiary rules for federal criminal cases, the U.S. Supreme Court has consistently declined to hold that the government must disclose the identity of informants in a preliminary hearing or
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The evidentiary rule that, although a piece of evidence is inadmissible under one rule for the purpose given in offering it, it is nevertheless admissible if relevant and offered for some other purpose not forbidden by the rules of evidence. [Cases: Criminal Law 385; Trial 54. C.J.S. Criminal Law §§ 656, 753; Trial § 179.]
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conclusion of fact. A factual deduction drawn from observed or proven facts; an evidentiary inference. Cf. FINDING OF FACT.
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rule, the. An evidentiary and procedural rule by which all witnesses are excluded from the courtroom while another witness is testifying (invoking “the rule”). • The phrase “the rule” is used chiefly in the American South and Southwest, but it is a universal practice to exclude witnesses before they testify. [Cases: Criminal Law 665; Federal
motion in limine (in lim-[schwa]-nee). A pretrial request that certain inadmissible evidence not be referred to or offered at trial. • Typically, a party makes this motion when it believes that mere mention of the evidence during trial would be highly prejudicial and could not be remedied by an instruction to disregard. If, after the
ante litem motam (an-tee lI-tem moh-t[schwa]m). [Law Latin “before the lawsuit was started”] Hist. Before an action has been raised; before a legal dispute arose — i.e., at a time when the declarant had no motive to lie. • This phrase was generally used in reference to the evidentiary requirement that the acts upon which