20/10/2021, 10:50 Law of Evidence in the United States of America- An Introduction

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Law of Evidence in the United States of America- An

Introduction
By Aritra Sarkar
|
October 18, 2020 0 Comment

This article on ‘Law of Evidence in the United States of America- An Introduction’ is written by
Aritra Sarkar and focuses on providing an introduction to the law of evidence in the USA. Privacy - Terms

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20/10/2021, 10:50 Law of Evidence in the United States of America- An Introduction

I. Introduction

Federal Rules of Evidence applies as the law of evidence in the United States of America. It was
adopted in the year of 1975. The law of evidence that applies in the United States of America is
called the Federal Rules of Evidence. While there are many states in America that have either
adopted these rules by varying them according to their local laws, there are some that had
adopted these rules directly without much verification. Also, there are states which have revised
their own law in such a way that it partially follows the Federal Rules of Evidence.

The United States Supreme Court made drafts of Federal Rules of Evidence and circulated them
but at that time congress used its power and suspended the implementation of Federal Rules of
Evidence until it can further study them. After Congress made a series of modifications and to
the proposed rules, they became applicable finally when President Ford signed “An Act to
Establish Rules of Evidence for Certain Courts and Proceedings”.

II. Important Amendments

Some of the most important amendments done by congress to the draft federal rules of
evidence were-

1. Prior inconsistent statement

Congress amended the proposed rule of 801(d)(1)(A).

“The rule now requires that the prior inconsistent statement be given under oath subject
to the penalty of perjury at a trial, hearing, or other proceedings, or in a deposition. The
rule as adopted covers statements before a grand jury.”

2. Privileges

There were 13 rules in the draft Federal Rules of Evidence to guide the law relating to privileges.
Congress struck all of them down and instead adopted rule 501 of the Federal Rules of Evidence.

The rule specified that “except as otherwise provided by Act of Congress or by other
federal rules, privileges in the federal courts would be governed by the principles of the
common law as they may be interpreted by the courts of the United States in the light of
reason and experience.”

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20/10/2021, 10:50 Law of Evidence in the United States of America- An Introduction

The amendment meant that the entire purpose of the law relating to privileges in the Federal
Rules of Evidence is being destroyed. Therefore, the lawyers who practice in the federal courts
will have to look carefully at different case laws that emerge from time to time to analyse the
contours of the available privileges in the particular place where their case is being heard.

3. Impeachment by conviction

Rule 609(a) was also amended by congress. This rule says when a party can use discretion to
impeach a witness. Congress reformed most part of the rule to specify when a court could
exercise discretion to admit evidence of a conviction which was a felony, but that the court must
admit the prior conviction if the crime was one involving “dishonesty or false statement”.

III. Purpose

The Federal Rules of Evidence was drafted to regulate the evidence that the jury may use to
reach the verdict. Historically it has been seen that the rules of evidence reflected a marked
distrust of jurors. The Federal Rules of Evidence seeks to eliminate this distrust.

Rule 102 of the Federal Rules of Evidence states the purpose of the rules of evidence. It states
that,

“These rules should be construed so as to administer every proceeding fairly, eliminate

unjustifiable expense and delay, and promote the development of evidence law, to the
end of ascertaining the truth and securing a just determination.”[1]

The Federal Rules of Evidence revolves around a few basic ideas such as relevance, unfair
surprise, efficiency, reliability, and overall fairness of the adversary process. The Federal Rules of
Evidence grants the trial judge’s broad discretion in the matter of admission of evidence in the
face of competing arguments from the parties. This is expected to ensure that the jury has got a
lot of broad spectrum of evidence in front of him but not those pieces of evidence that are
repetitive, inflammatory, or unnecessarily confusing.

IV. Structure of the Law of Evidence in the United States 

There are 67 individually numbered rules that are divided among 11 articles which are-

1. General Provisions
2. Judicial Notice
3. Presumptions in Civil Actions and Proceedings
4. Relevancy and Its Limits Privacy - Terms

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20/10/2021, 10:50 Law of Evidence in the United States of America- An Introduction

5. Privileges
6. Witnesses
7. Opinions and Expert Testimony
8. Hearsay
9. Authentication and Identification
10. Contents of Writings, Recordings, and Photographs
11. Miscellaneous Rules

The Rules contains some very common concepts which are referred to as rule number. For
example, in rule 403 contains a very common and important concept which is the balancing of
relevance against other competing interests. The rule states that

“The court may exclude relevant evidence if its probative value is substantially
outweighed by a danger of one or more of the following: unfair prejudice, confusing the
issues, misleading the jury, undue delay, wasting time, or needlessly presenting
cumulative evidence.”

Another example is rule 404, specifically 404(b) where we see that the rules may forbid certain
testimonies from being admissible in the court of law for one purpose, while the same may be
admissible in the court for another purpose. Rule 404(b)(1) prohibits the use of prior acts or
crimes of the defendant to show that he acted in accordance with those prior acts and crimes.
Rule 404(b) pertains to specific instances of a person’s conduct.

Rule 404(b)(1) states that

“Prohibited Uses- Evidence of a crime, wrong, or other act is not admissible to prove a
person’s character in order to show that on a particular occasion the person acted in
accordance with the character.”

While rule 404(b)(2) states that,

“Permitted Uses; Notice in a Criminal Case. This evidence may be admissible for another
purpose, such as proving motive, opportunity, intent, preparation, plan, knowledge,
identity, absence of mistake, or lack of accident.”[2]

Thus, we see that in 404(b)(1) the Evidence of a crime, wrong, or other act is not admissible while
in the case of 404(b)(2) it is admissible for two different purposes.

As said earlier the law relating to privileges remained based on the federal common law under
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the rules of the federal law of evidence rather than being a subject of judicial interpretation of
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20/10/2021, 10:50 Law of Evidence in the United States of America- An Introduction

the text of the rule.

1. The advisory committee draft of the rules contained nine evidentiary privileges
which are-

1. Required reports,
2. Attorney-client,
3. Psychotherapist-patient,
4. Husband-wife,
5. Communications to clergymen,
6. Political vote,
7. Trade secrets,
8. Official secrets, and
9. Identity of informer

Congress replaced the proposed rules of privileges when the debate over them threatened to
delay the adoption of the rules. Congress replaced the proposed privileges with rule 501.[3]

The scope of the privileges under the Rules is subject to the federal common law except in cases
where the state law supplies the rule to be applied. The supreme court is thus having the
ultimate responsibility to determine which privileges exist and which don’t.

After the enactment of the Federal Rules of Evidence, the United States Supreme Court had
expressly agreed to adopt a privilege in the case of Jaffee v. Redmond[4] and expressly declined
to adopt a rule of privilege in the case of the University of Pennsylvania v. EEOC[5].

V. Restyling

On 1st December 2011, the restyled Federal Rules of Evidence became effective. The effort to
restyle the Federal Rules of Evidence and other federal court rules such as the Federal Rules of
Civil Procedure had started in the early 2000s.

According to the statement of the advisory committee who has restyled the rules of the federal
laws said that the restyling was not intended to make substantive changes in the evidentiary
rules but was rather intended to make it purely stylistic. The United States Supreme Court
approved the restyled FEDERAL RULES OF EVIDENCE on 26th April 2011 and under the Rules
Enabling Act it came to effect.

Edited by- Akriti

References Privacy - Terms

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20/10/2021, 10:50 Law of Evidence in the United States of America- An Introduction

[1] Schaffzin, Katharine. “Is Evidence Obsolete?” The Review of Litigation, vol. 36, no. 3,
University of Texas, Austin, School of Law Publications, Inc., Jan. 2017, p. 529.

[2] Rule 404. Character Evidence; Crimes or Other Acts, Available Here

[3] Federal Rules of Evidence explained. Available Here

[4]  518 U.S. 1 (1996)

[5] 493 U.S. 182 (1990)

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Author: Aritra Sarkar

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