Requesting judicial notice in California

Requesting judicial notice in California is the topic of this blog post.

The statutes governing judicial notice are contained in Evidence Code Sections 450 through 460.

Evidence Code § 451 states that the Court must take judicial notice of the following matters:

(a) The decisional, constitutional, and public statutory law of this state and of the United States and the provisions of any charter described in Section 3, 4, or 5 of Article XI of the California Constitution.

(b) Any matter made a subject of judicial notice by Section 11343.6, 11344.6, or 18576 of the Government Code or by Section 1507 of Title 44 of the United States Code.

(c) Rules of professional conduct for members of the bar adopted pursuant to Section 6076 of the Business and Professions Code and rules of practice and procedure for the courts of this state adopted by the Judicial Council.

(d) Rules of pleading, practice, and procedure prescribed by the United States Supreme Court, such as the Rules of the United States Supreme Court, the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, the Admiralty Rules, the Rules of the Court of Claims, the Rules of the Customs Court, and the General Orders and Forms in Bankruptcy.

(e) The true signification of all English words and phrases and of all legal expressions.

(f) Facts and propositions of generalized knowledge that are so universally known that they cannot reasonably be the subject of dispute.

Evidence Code § 452 states that the Court may take judicial notice of the following matters:

(a) The decisional, constitutional, and statutory law of any state of the United States and the resolutions and private acts of the Congress of the United States and of the Legislature of this state.

(b) Regulations and legislative enactments issued by or under the authority of the United States or any public entity in the United States.

(c) Official acts of the legislative, executive, and judicial departments of the United States and of any state of the United States.

(d) Records of (1) any court of this state or (2) any court of record of the United States or of any state of the United States.

(e) Rules of court of (1) any court of this state or (2) any court of record of the United States or of any state of the United States.

(f) The law of an organization of nations and of foreign nations and public entities in foreign nations.

(g) Facts and propositions that are of such common knowledge within the territorial jurisdiction of the court that they cannot reasonably be the subject of dispute.

(h) Facts and propositions that are not reasonably subject to dispute and are capable of immediate and accurate determination by resort to sources of reasonably indisputable accuracy.

Judicial notice may not be taken of any matter unless authorized or required by law. See Evidence Code § 450.

Any party requesting judicial notice must give notice of such request to each adverse party to enable that party to meet the request, and must furnish the Court with sufficient information to enable it to take judicial notice of the matter. See Evidence Code § 453.

Note that judicial notice of other Court records and files is limited to matters that are indisputably true. See Fremont Indem. Co. v. Fremont Gen. Corp. (2007) 148 Cal.App. 4th 97, 113. This means that judicial notice is limited to the orders and judgments in the other court file, as distinguished from the contents of documents filed therein.

However, there are exceptions to this rule when a party amends a pleading, particularly a verified pleading and omits material factual allegations that were included in the original pleading without an adequate explanation.

"The general rule is that material factual allegations in a verified pleading that are omitted in a subsequent amended pleading without adequate explanation will be considered by the court in ruling on a demurrer to the later pleading." Shoemaker v. Myers (1990) 52 Cal. 3d 1, 13.

Judicial notice is a very useful tool for any party involved in California civil litigation. They just need to be aware of its limitations.

Attorneys or parties in California who wish to view a sample request for judicial notice created by the author can click below.

www.scribd.com/doc/37754803

The author of this article, Stan Burman, is a freelance paralegal who has worked in California and Federal litigation since 1995.

The author of this blog post, Stan Burman, is an entrepreneur and freelance paralegal that has worked in California and Federal litigation since 1995 and has created over 300 sample legal documents for California and Federal litigation.

If you are in need of assistance with any California or Federal litigation matters, Mr. Burman is available on a freelance basis. Mr. Burman may be contacted by e-mail at DivParalgl@yahoo.com for more information. He accepts payments through PayPal which means that you can pay using most credit or debit cards.

Visit his website at http://www.legaldocspro.com

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