Today's Broadcast

Topic: Hearsay & res getae

The American Bar Association traces its beginnings back to August 21st, 1878, in Saratoga Springs, New York. One declared purpose of establishing the ABA was to "advance . . . the science of jurisprudence"; today, the ABA counts this among its goals: ". . . increas[ing] . . . public understanding of . . . the law [and] the legal process."

And it is in that spirit that today we speak to hearsay and res getae. Lawyers know hearsay as evidence based not on a witness's personal knowledge but on another's statement not made under oath. Lawyers also know that some—but certainly not all—hearsay can be accepted as evidence. Take, for example, the hearsay encompassed in res gestae. 

In Latin, res gestae means "things done"; in English, it refers especially to the facts that form the environment of a litigated issue and are admissible in evidence. Res gestae refers specifically to the exception or set of exceptions to the hearsay rule that permits the admission of hearsay evidence regarding excited utterances or declarations relating to mental, emotional, or bodily states or sense impressions of a witness or participant.

Got all that? In legal terms, excited utterances—"statements concerning a startling event expressed by a person under stress caused by the event"—are exceptions to the no-hearsay rule; under the excited utterance exception fall spontaneous declarations—"excited utterances made without time for fabrication."

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