Judicial Notice

Rule 201(a) & (b) - Judicial Notice of Adjudicative Facts

(a) rule governs judicail notice of an adjudicative fact only, not a legislative fact (b) Court may judicially notice a fact that is not subject to reasonable dispute because it: 1) is generally known within the trial court's territorial jurisdiction; or 2) can be accurately and readily determined from sources whose accuracy cannot reasonably be questioned

Adjudicative Facts

- something that must be proven in this case - normally decided by jury - if there is no dispute over it, and it is reasonable to adjudicate, rule 201 applies - ex: NRG stadium is in houston; liquor is an intoxicating beverage *- effectively are things that need not be proven

Legislative Facts

DEF: information that court uses to interpret a statute - may be judicially noticed, but not governed by 201 - need not use facts of case in front of them - used to interpret law/common law doctrine - formed using dicta?

Rule 201(d) - Timing

court may take judicial notice of adjudicative fact at any stage of proceeding (even on appeal)

Rule 201(c) - Taking Notice

the court: 1) may take judicial notice on its own; or 2) must take judicial notice if a party requests it any the court is supplied with the necessary information

Procedural Notice

- method by which judge can bypass having facts presented to jury in order to make factual determination - can take uncontested facts out of contention

Rule 201(e) - Opportunity to be Heard

- on timely request, a party is entitled to be heard on the propriety of taking judicial notice and the nature of the fact to be noticed - if the court takes judicial notice before notifying a party, the party, on request, is entitled to ne heard

Facts w/in knowledge of judge

- cannot take judicial notice of judge's own personal experience - should be left to jury to determine *- judge's experience could be wholly different from that of another

Rule 201(f) - Instructing the Jury

- in a CIVIL case, the court must instruct the jury to accept the notice fact as conclusive - in a CRIMINAL case, the court must isntruct the jury that it may or may not accept the noticed fact as conclusive

Criminal cases

- judge can take judicial notce of adjudicative fact **- jury must be instructed that they can disregard the fact - cannot take judicial notice for the first time at appellate level - can offer rebuttal evidence to let jury figure out if they want to accept/disregard judicially noticed adjudicative fact

Civil cases

- judicial notice may be taken of an adjudicative fact **- jury must be instructed to take fact as conclusory - can take judicial notice at any time - cannot offer rebuttal evidence of judicially noticed fact