Tennessee Criminal Lawyer Blog

If you have ever watched one of the many legal dramas that pervade cable television, you have undoubtedly heard a lawyer vehemently declare the phrase “Your honor, I object. That’s hearsay!” The concept seems simple enough: if you hear the witness say something along the lines of “he said” or “he told me” then you stand up, object to hearsay, have your objection sustained and then sit down triumphantly. Unfortunately, it rarely, if ever, works this way in the courtrooms of the real world.

Hearsay, which seems simple enough at first glance, is actually a complicated concept. The entire purpose of classifying certain evidence as hearsay and thus excluding it from the courtroom is that some information is not reliable enough to be used in court. This is often the case because allowing certain hearsay statements to come in would make those statements part of the record without providing an opportunity to cross-examine the person who made the statement with regard to the conditions surrounding the statement and whether or not it is indeed true.

Hearsay is broadly defined as any statement made out of court offered in court to prove the truth of the matter asserted. For example, the phrase “he said she ate a hot dog on Tuesday” would be hearsay if it was offered to prove that she did in fact eat a hot dog on Tuesday. If it was offered for any other relevant purpose or fell under one of the many hearsay exceptions, then the statement would not be classified as hearsay and might be admissible. Hearsay exceptions exist because although some evidence technically constitutes hearsay under the definition provided it is reliable enough to be used as part of the record in court. Often hearsay exceptions are based on the principle that certain people in certain conditions would not tell a lie or would keep accurate records. The hearsay rules tend to differ in a number of areas in federal courts and figuring out how to use them to your advantage is key to properly conducting a civil or criminal trial. Using an experienced Tennessee criminal defense attorney can let a defendant rest securely in the knowledge that his counsel has a thorough understanding of these rules and will use them to the client’s benefit.