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Hearsay is secondhand testimony;  reports by one person about what another person said.  

You are shopping with a friend and she notices a “customer” placing clothing in her large purse.  She immediately tells you what happened in great detail and you are sure your friend is competent and a “good” person.  The “customer” is detained by store personnel and is ultimately arrested when the police arrive.  The camera shows both you and your friend to be on the same isle during the alleged shoplifting incident and you give the officer your names and contact numbers.  Both of you are likely to be good witnesses for the prosecution of the shoplifter.

Fortunately, the hearsay rules developed in common law in England were brought to the colonies by settlers.

Only verbal statements by witness can be considered hearsay.

The hearsay rule is important because history revealed that “defendants” in court were victimized by English Criminal Courts allowing anonymous accusers and absentee witnesses to testify against defendants.

Cross-examination has been called (by former Chief Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., 1841-1935 – wow! huh?), “The greatest legal truth finding procedure ever devised.”  The purpose of cross-examination is, therefore, to get at the “truth.”  [That means that the defense counsel is questioning the state’s witness and/or the prosecutor (representing the state) is questioning (examining) the defense’s witness.] This purpose of the process of “cross-examination” is to ____________ the opponents witness.

During a jury trial, the judge and jury listens to many witnesses and, perhaps, the defendant.  However, it is the sole responsibility of the judge to determine the credibility of all witnesses, including the defendant.

In the last question, which you hopefully answered TRUE (remember – you can’t go back or you’ll be booted out!), you learned that the prosecutor calls the first witness.  When the prosecutor or defense attorney is examining a witness they called, the examination is called direct examination. (i.e., prosecutor questioning the witness s/he called and same for the defense counselor).

_________________ evidence is evidence that _____________ proves a fact in issue.

If an EMS provider uses a 3 rd party services to submit data to the Registries, a legally binding agreement must exist between the EMS provider and the 3 rd party services and this document must be provided to the department.