For example, if a driver in an automobile accident boasts publicly that they were speeding, it may represent a legal admission of liability.
The Federal Rules of evidence limit the bases of prejudices to the declarant to tort and criminal liability.
[1] Some states, such as California, extend the prejudice to "hatred, ridicule, or social disgrace in the community."
The admissibility of evidence under the declaration against interest exception to the hearsay rule is often limited by the Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment.
Under California's Evidence Code § 1230[3] defines "Declarations against interest" as: Evidence of a statement by a declarant having sufficient knowledge of the subject is not made inadmissible by the hearsay rule if the declarant is unavailable as a witness and the statement, when made, was so far contrary to the declarant's pecuniary or proprietary interest, or so far subjected him to the risk of civil or criminal liability, or so far tended to render invalid a claim by him against another, or created such a risk of making him an object of hatred, ridicule, or social disgrace in the community, that a reasonable man in his position would not have made the statement unless he believed it to be true.This article relating to law in the United States or its constituent jurisdictions is a stub.