Judicial Notice Under the California Evidence Code

Division 4 of the California Evidence Code deals with Judicial Notice. Section 450 provides that judicial notice may not be taken of any matter unless authorized or required by law.

Section 451 requires judicial notice to be take of:

• The decisional, constitutional, and public statutory law of this state and of the United States and the provisions of any charter.
• 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.
• 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.
• Rules of pleading, practice, and procedure prescribed by the United States Supreme Court.
• The true signification of all English words and phrases and of all legal expressions.
• Facts and propositions of generalized knowledge that are so universally known that they cannot reasonably be the subject of dispute.

Section 452 authorizes judicial notice to be taken of the following:

• 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.
• Regulations and legislative enactments issued by or under the authority of the United States or any public entity in the United States.
• Official acts of the legislative, executive, and judicial departments of the United States and of any state of the United States.
• Records of any court of this state or any court of record of the United States or of any state of the United States.
• Rules of court of any court of this state or any court of record of the United States or of any state of the United States.
• The law of an organization of nations and of foreign nations and public entities in foreign nations.
• 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.
• 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.

Section 452.5 states that the official acts and records listed above include any computer-generated official court records, as specified by the Judicial Council, that relate to criminal convictions, when the record is certified by a clerk of the superior court at the time of computer entry.

Section 453 requires a trial court to take judicial notice of any matter if a party requests it and gives each adverse party sufficient notice of the request, through the pleadings or otherwise, to enable such adverse party to prepare to meet the request; and furnishes the court with sufficient information to enable it to take judicial notice of the matter.

Section 454 requires, in determining the propriety of taking judicial notice of a matter, consideration of any source of pertinent information, including the advice of persons learned in the subject matter, may be consulted or used, whether or not furnished by a party, as well as exclusionary rules of evidence generally do not apply with specified exceptions.

Section 455 provides that if an item is of substantial consequence to the determination of the action, the if the trial court has been requested to take or has taken or proposes to take judicial notice of such matter, the court must afford each party reasonable opportunity, before the jury is instructed or before the cause is submitted for decision by the court, to present to the court information relevant to (1) the propriety of taking judicial notice of the matter and (2) the tenor of the matter to be noticed.

Section 456 states that, if the trial court denies a request to take judicial notice of any matter, the court must at the earliest practicable time so advise the parties and indicate for the record that it has denied the request. Section 457 provides that, if a matter judicially noticed is a matter which would otherwise have been for determination by the jury, the trial court may, and upon request is required to, instruct the jury to accept as a fact the matter so noticed.

Section 458 specifies that the failure or refusal of the trial court to take judicial notice of a matter, or to instruct the jury with respect to the matter, does not preclude the trial court in subsequent proceedings in the action from taking judicial notice of the matter in accordance with the procedure specified.

Section 459 requires the reviewing court to take judicial notice of (1) each matter properly noticed by the trial court and (2) each matter that the trial court was required to notice. The reviewing court may take judicial notice of any matter specified in Section 452. The reviewing court may take judicial notice of a matter in a tenor different from that noticed by the trial court.

Section 460 states that, where the advice of persons learned in the subject matter is required in order to enable the court to take judicial notice of a matter, the court on its own motion or on motion of any party may appoint one or more such persons to provide such advice.