Hearsay, in a legal forum, is an out-of-court statement which is being offered in court for the truth of what was asserted.
Note, however, that if the matter at hand is not the truth of the assertion about Tom being in town but the fact that Susan said the specific words, it may be acceptable.
Language of commercial offer and acceptance is also admissible over a hearsay exception because the statements have independent legal significance.
"Hearsay is a statement, other than one made by the declarant while testifying at the trial or hearing, offered in evidence to prove the truth of the matter asserted.
[1] Federal Rule of Evidence 803 lists the following: Rule 804 adds several additional exceptions where the declarant is unavailable: Though a hearsay statement may be admissible through an exception, the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution provides a specific constitutional protection for criminal defendants.
The Sixth Amendment provides that "In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right ... to be confronted with the witnesses against him".
Hearsay evidence is generally inadmissible in Canada unless it falls within one of the established common law exceptions.
The rules of evidence differ among the states and the Commonwealth; the Commonwealth, Victoria, New South Wales, Tasmania, and the Australian Capital Territory all share similar hearsay provisions in their Uniform Evidence Acts;[8] the other states rely upon the common law.
s 59 defines the "fact" of a hearsay statement as being something "that it can reasonably be supposed that the person intended to assert by the representation".
The extraordinary s 60 allows a statement's use as hearsay if it is admitted for a non-hearsay purpose, although the application of s 60 may be limited by s 137 (which is essentially the discretion formerly known as Christie).
Previously inadmissible, the 1989 decision of the Court of Appeal in R v Baker created a common law exception to the hearsay rule based on reliability, which was codified in the Evidence Act.
Sections 47A to 51 provides for safeguards in relation to hearsay evidence admissible under section 46 so as to avoid abuses of the general admission: The courts shall draw inferences from the circumstances as to the weight attached to hearsay evidence, in particular:[13] The new civil regime also preserves a number of common law exceptions that are unaffected by the statutory safeguards except for the section 47A safeguard relating to notice.