Also known as: business records · business records exception
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A report, memorandum, or other record made in the ordinary course of business. The record must be created at or near the time of the event by a person with knowledge, kept in the regular practice of the activity, and shown to be trustworthy through custodian testimony or certification.
Brighton Manufacturing's safety officer compiled an accident report the day after a worker was injured on the assembly line. The report followed the company's standard form but was created after the company received notice of a potential claim. At trial the court excluded the report because its primary purpose was to prepare for litigation rather than to conduct the manufacturing business.
Prosecutors introduced a DNA profile report generated by an outside laboratory to match a sample taken from a crime scene. The sponsoring witness from the state lab testified only that the report arrived through ordinary channels and did not recount any statements from the lab analyst. The court admitted the report as a business record after finding it was created in the regular course of accredited laboratory operations.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
A grand jury subpoena demanded production of a law firm's billing ledgers and client trust account records. The partner asserted the Fifth Amendment, arguing that the act of production would authenticate the documents. The court held that the ledgers were ordinary business records whose existence and possession were a foregone conclusion, so the act of production carried no testimonial significance.
At a rape trial an Illinois State Police analyst testified that she matched a DNA profile generated by an accredited outside laboratory to a profile she created from the defendant's blood sample. She confirmed through business records that the vaginal swabs had been sent to and returned from the laboratory. The court permitted the testimony because the laboratory report itself was not offered for its truth.
After a fatal plane crash the Navy prepared an investigative report containing statements from witnesses and technical findings. The report was offered in a subsequent civil suit to prove the cause of the crash. The court admitted the factual portions of the report as business records created in the regular course of naval aviation safety operations.
A grand jury subpoena sought production of a three-partner law firm's client billing ledgers and fee statements. One partner claimed the records were protected by the Fifth Amendment. The court ruled that the records were ordinary business records whose existence was a foregone conclusion and therefore not subject to the privilege against self-incrimination.
A record loses the protection of the business records exception when its primary purpose is to prepare for litigation rather than to conduct the enterprise's regular business. Courts examine whether the record would have been created in the same form even if no litigation were anticipated.
Yes. An entry is admissible only when made by an employee recorder based on information obtained directly or from an informant who was under a business duty to convey the information. Statements from third parties outside the business are not covered.
A qualified witness need only understand the record-keeping system and how the records were generated and accessed. Complete knowledge of the backend architecture is not required.
Post-complaint manual corrections raise serious doubts about trustworthiness. If the opponent shows that the circumstances of preparation indicate a lack of trustworthiness the records may be excluded even if they originated in a routine system.
…case.[^maj-6] Most of the hearsay exceptions covered statements that by their nature were not testimonial — for example, business records or statements in furtherance of a conspiracy. We do not infer from these that the Framers thought exceptions would apply even to prior testimony. Cf. Lilly v. Virginia , 527 U. S. 116, 134…