Also known as: business record exception · business records exceptions · hearsay business records exception · FRE 803(6)
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A hearsay exception permitting admission of a record of an act, event, condition, opinion, or diagnosis when the record was made at or near the time by or from information transmitted by someone with knowledge, kept in the course of a regularly conducted business activity, and made as a regular practice of that activity, provided the source of information or method of preparation does not indicate lack of trustworthiness.
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After a derailment at Bristol Steel, the safety supervisor compiled a detailed accident narrative following the company's standard form. The report incorporated statements from bystanders who had no duty to report to the company. When a worker later sued, the court excluded the report because its primary purpose was to prepare for potential claims rather than to document routine operations.
In a sexual assault prosecution, the state offered a DNA profile report generated by an outside laboratory. The analyst who performed the testing did not testify. The defendant objected that the report was testimonial. The court held that the business records exception did not remove the Confrontation Clause requirement because the report was prepared for use at trial.
Prosecutors introduced certificates from laboratory analysts stating that seized substances were cocaine. The analysts did not appear as witnesses. The defendant challenged admission on confrontation grounds. The court ruled that the certificates were testimonial and that the business records exception could not substitute for live testimony.
The record must have been made at or near the time of the event by or from information transmitted by a person with knowledge. It must have been kept in the course of a regularly conducted business activity and made as a regular practice of that activity. A custodian or other qualified witness must authenticate the record, and the circumstances of preparation must not indicate a lack of trustworthiness.
A record loses the protection of the exception when its primary purpose is to prepare for litigation rather than to document the regular conduct of the enterprise. Courts examine whether the business's ordinary operations, not the prospect of suit, drove creation of the document.
…would entitle the defendant to Confrontation Clause protection. Cf. 2 Wigmore, Evidence §1527, at 1892 (in respect to the business records exception, “there must have been no motive to misrepresent”). Thus, the defendant would remain free to show the absence or inadequacy of the alternative reliability/honesty safeguards, thereby…
…investigative report describing the crime scene admissible absent an opportunity to examine the officer? The dissent's novel exception from coverage of the Confrontation Clause would exempt all expert witnesses—a hardly "unconventional" class of witnesses. A third respect in which the dissent asserts that the analysts are…
No. The exception requires that the informant who supplied the information either had personal knowledge or was under a business duty to transmit the information. Statements from outsiders lacking such a duty remain inadmissible hearsay even if embedded in an otherwise qualifying record.
A record that qualifies as a business record may still be testimonial and therefore subject to the Confrontation Clause. When the primary purpose of the report is to create evidence for trial, the exception does not eliminate the need for the analyst to testify.