Today we're gonna talk about hearsay. We're gonna talk about its meaning, its
definition and a whole bunch of other stuff... actually there's a lot on our
plate so let's just go ahead and cut straight to the intro *INTRO* Welcome to Law Venture
My name's Jarrett Stone. since you're watching this video about objections, I
highly recommend that you download this cheat sheet with the 21 most common
trial objections. It's super free, it's super helpful. And it has a breakdown of
how to make each objection, when to make each objection, and how to respond to
each objection. If you want to get it, go in the description; click the link; type
in your email address; and then BOOM it'll get sent directly to you.
I also recommend that you check out this video with the top 10 trial objections
that you'll be making in the courtroom. It's super helpful and you want to have
these down pat. Okay enough of that, let's talk about hearsay and I want to set
expectations just a little bit before diving into a detailed hearsay analysis
because this particular video is just going to be a broad overview. Basically a
bird's eye view of what all hearsay is and what all hearsay entails. If I were to
dive too into the weeds with hearsay and have one super long video, I think I
would lose most of y'all. And I truthfully wouldn't even watch the video
from beginning to end myself so we're going to take hearsay in bite-sized chunks.
And in order to keep up with all the videos, don't forget to subscribe, which
is down there. Alright, let's start with 801 because Rule 801 defines exactly
what hearsay is and in order to make any analysis about hearsay you need to know
what it is so let's dive in according to the Federal Rules of Evidence Rule 801
hearsay means a statement that the declarant does not make while testifying
at the current trial or hearing and a party offers in evidence to prove the
truth of the matter asserted in the statement yeah I know
mind-blown a little bit there's a lot going on in that definition
fortunately 801 provides a little bit of guidance because it has additional
definitions to define the certain key elements within the hearsay definition
hopefully that makes sense but we'll break it down to where it does make a
little bit more in particular let's look at what a
statement is under 801 a statement means a person's oral assertion written
assertion or nonverbal conduct if the person intended it as an assertion so
given that definition we know that hearsay is going to potentially apply to
certain statements whether it was written whether it is oral or nonverbal
conduct now nonverbal conduct is a little tricky but something like that
if you intended it to be a statement of yes or a confirmation that's a non
verbal conduct or if you were to and here's probably the best example click
the like button down below that is a non verbal statement that you are enjoying
this video now we need to basically unpack the other important element of
what hearsay is and that's the definition of a declarant a declarant
means the person who made the statement that definition is simple enough and
just a side note this is kind of unrelated every time I hear the word
declarant it makes me think of michael scott in the office always saying i do
declare in that one episode involving a murder investigation
i don't know if that comes to mind for anybody else if it does leave that in
the comments below alright got off topic there let's get back on topic when it
comes to the word declarant there needs to be an important distinction a
declarant isn't synonymous and doesn't mean the same exact thing as witness a
declarant is more often than not in the hearsay sense somebody who made a
statement outside of the witness stand and outside of the courtroom this will
be important to remember as we proceed in each one of these aspects of hearsay
in particular the purpose behind hearsay but I'm gonna go ahead and hold that
back right now because we're still unpacking this definition but just keep
in mind that a witness isn't always a declarant but you can also have a
witness who is also a declarant if that particular witness is quoting a
statement that they declared like Michael Scott
outside of the witness stand I think that makes sense I hope it makes sense
if it doesn't be sure that maybe ask me a follow-up question in the comments
below okay the final element that we need to talk
about is the truth of the matter asserted in that
hearsay definition now what does that mean and that's kind of a really weird
way to phrase any sentence but the truth of the matter asserted simply means that
you're offering a sentence of or a statement and you're trying to prove the
substance of that particular statement so if I were to offer up a statement
that Bob told me today is Cinco DeMayo well if I'm offering it to prove the
fact that today is Cinco DeMayo or that particular day was Cinco DeMayo
something along those lines and I'm trying to prove using the substance of
that sentence the same exact fact that means I'm trying to prove the truth of
the matter asserted now on the opposite side what wouldn't be the truth of the
matter asserted is if I may be offered the Cinco DeMayo statement that Bob made
the declarant then if I offer that for the just pure purpose of showing that I
spoke with Bob that particular day then that means I'm not trying to prove that
it was Cinco DeMayo I'm just trying to prove that I had a communication and I
had a conversation with Bob so in that particular instance it's not being
offered for the truth of the matter asserted and in that particular instance
that statement by a declarant out-of-court potentially would be non
hearsay and that's the second part of 801 801 D goes into greater detail of
what non hearsay actually is but there's an important distinction that needs to
be made non hearsay is not the same as a hearsay exception this is so critical
and so many lawyers get this confused they refer to everything as a hearsay
exception non hearsay has never been here say at any point because by
definition it's not hearsay that's an important distinction because whenever
you make this argument to the judge that means that at no point in time should
this have been prevented from being into evidence on the flipside if you have a
hearsay exception on its face before you get to the exception that particular
statement should not be admitted because it's
here say then you have to apply an exception so you have a harder road
whenever you're arguing that it's a hearsay exception and it's just it's
just an unreasonably harder road if you're arguing it's an exception when
it's reality it's non hearsay so be sure you have that correct be sure is crystal
clear to the judge that if it's non hearsay it was never here say to begin
with so many lawyers like I said get this confused and it's easy to get
confused but let's go ahead and just move on to 802 and a totem makes it a
little bit clearer about why we're talking about hearsay 802 states that
hearsay is not admissible unless any of the following provides otherwise a
federal statute these rules or other rules prescribed by the Supreme Court
that definition shouldn't come to a surprise to you given everything we've
been talking about when it comes to keeping statements out of evidence but I
hope you have a certain question in your mind which is why do we have this rule
against hearsay what is it all about well truthfully it's not to make your
life miserable there's actually a real purpose behind it but before answering
that we need to talk about cross-examination the purpose of
cross-examination is to stress test the other side's witnesses and the other
side's position that way the jury can determine whether or not the witness and
the other side's position is credible and so this allows the opposing side to
Darren cross examination poke holes and if the witness survives the
cross-examination and the jury thinks the witness did a great job and most
likely that witness will be deemed credible now the issue in the
complication occurs with hearsay let's say I'm cross-examining a witness and at
some point during that cross-examination the witness decides to quote a declarant
and is using this statement or this quote to prove the truth of the matter
asserted let's go ahead and rule out that this is not non hearsay so it is
hearsay double- there and the problem I have at this point the wrench in my plan
with my process examination is that I can't cross-examine the declarant
because the declarant isn't on the stand so I can't really stress test the
credibility of the declarant and credibility of the statement made by the
declarant I just had to clear out a whole lot and that's why we have the
hearsay objection but here's a little bit of a caveat the hearsay objection
like we've talked about has exceptions so let's talk about those rule 803 and
804 are the exceptions to hearsay there's an important distinction between
the two to wear and I'll just gloss over this because this is just a highlight
video basically 803 is going to apply in all cases essentially when it comes to
the exceptions 804 is only going to apply in certain situations mainly
whenever the declarant is unavailable to be a witness for certain reasons so be
sure to check those out I'll have videos that explain this a
little bit in greater detail but there's one important concept that I want you to
understand what these exceptions generally speaking the hearsay
exceptions assume that the facts that apply to each exception is made because
it's true and to make that a little bit more concrete let's go ahead and use an
example under 803 there's excited utterance and in that situation if
something shocking happens and in the moment a declarant says something and
doesn't have time to really think about it just reacts by saying something that
statement is essentially assumed to be truthful because under the excited
utterance exception the declarant doesn't have enough time to really
formulate that statement and be strategic to where okay maybe this
statement may be used in a court of law so I want to say it exactly that's gonna
be most beneficial to me or my friend or to whoever but with excited utterance in
particular it assumes it's true because somebody didn't really have time in the
moment to think that far ahead and that's essentially the same principle
not so much as like excited utterance but the same principle of honesty and
truthfulness with most of these exceptions so be sure to unpack it be
sure to go through each one and see if certain statements apply or don't apply
and remember there's a distinction between non hearsay and exceptions you
always need to keep in mind that even though something may be non hearsay or
even though something may satisfy a hearsay exception it's always going to
have to satisfy rule 403 before it's admitted
so if you're trying to get a statement in keep in mind you have to overcome
rule 403 or if you're trying to object remember always have that catch-all 403
objection if you are needing more material about four or three be sure to
watch this video above that I release it goes into detail and really unpacks for
a three for you alright let's move on to the next aspect of the hearsay objection
sorry if my eyes are watering I just sneezed off-camera anyways we're not
gonna spend too much time on 805 because it's really not that complicated it
basically says that you can have hearsay within here say if that's the case and
you're going to need to unpack each level of hearsay with an exception and
it's a lot like Inception to where you just keep going one layer deep but the
point of it is let's say you have a document with statements on it writing
that's potentially hearsay and within that document if the person quotes
somebody else if there's a declarant then you could have that multi level of
hearsay so you're gonna have to find an exception for the first one an exception
for the second one and then again you're gonna have to satisfy rule 4 of 3 okay
moving on to the next one 806 806 is relatively short because it allows you
to attack or support the credibility of a declarant and this kind of brings us
full circle with the whole point of cross-examination which is stress
testing the credibility of a witness but in this particular case you're either
stress testing or supporting the credibility of a declarant who isn't a
witness all right let's just move on to 807 this one's also short and simple and
it really appeals to a sense of fairness and this is kind of the catch-all for
the hearsay exception it's not the four or three the ultimate catch-all but it's
the last and when it comes to allowing a hearsay statement to come in and
truthfully I don't know how often people are successful making this argument but
it's something you need to have in your back pocket just in case be sure to
check out the elements be sure to satisfy all the elements and be sure to
note that there's a notice requirement that you need to satisfy as well if you
make a good argument fingers crossed hopefully the judge will let the
statement in alright if you have any questions about this be sure to leave
those in the comments below if you're still watching at this point don't
forget to give this video a thumbs up hey the subscribe button it's over there
it's it's right there right there alright I'll see y'all in the next video
you