Also known as: record of regularly conducted activity · records of regularly conducted activities · regularly conducted activity records · business records exception · FRE 803(6) · hearsay exception business records
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A hearsay exception that admits a memorandum, report, record, or data compilation of acts, events, conditions, opinions, or diagnoses. The record must be made at or near the time by a person with knowledge or from information transmitted by such a person, kept in the course of a regularly conducted business activity, and made as a regular practice of that activity, as shown by the testimony of a custodian or other qualified witness or by certification, unless the source of information or circumstances of preparation indicate lack of trustworthiness.
Raven Logistics employee Ruby Rivera prepared an internal report detailing a derailment that injured a bystander. The report followed the company's standard accident documentation form and was completed the same day. At trial the company offered the report to prove the cause of the derailment, but the court excluded it because the primary purpose of the document was to prepare for anticipated litigation rather than to document ordinary rail operations.
Rhapsody Entertainment sent a blood sample to an independent laboratory for DNA analysis in a paternity suit. Laboratory analysts recorded the test results in the ordinary course of their certified testing procedures without knowing the identity of any party to the litigation. The court admitted the report under the exception because the analysts operated under a business duty to produce accurate technical data and the record was kept as part of the laboratory's regular activity.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Riverstone Manufacturing maintained detailed service logs for every aircraft it repaired. After a crash, the company offered its service log showing the condition of the plane's flight controls at the last inspection. The court admitted the log because the entries were made at or near the time of the inspection by employees with direct knowledge and were kept as a regular practice of the repair business.
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's business. Courts examine whether the maker's ordinary duties include creating the record or whether the record was generated chiefly because of the prospect of suit.
Supporting sources
Yes. The exception requires that the information come from a person with knowledge who was acting in the course of the regularly conducted activity or from an informant who had a business duty to transmit the information. Statements from third parties outside that duty chain remain inadmissible hearsay even if the record itself satisfies the other requirements.
Supporting sources
Yes. The rule expressly includes opinions and diagnoses when they are recorded in the regular course of business by a person with knowledge and the other foundational requirements are met. Courts admit such entries when the source and method of preparation do not indicate untrustworthiness.
Supporting sources
…a hearsay exception that has constituted an important part of the law of evidence for decades. See Fed. Rule Evid. 803(6) (“Records of Regularly Conducted Activity”); 2 J. Wigmore, Evidence §§1517–1533, pp. 1878–1899 (1904) (“Regular Entries”). And for somewhat similar reasons, I believe that such statements also presumptively fall outside the…