Louisiana Code of Evidence on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
The Louisiana Code of Evidence is a
code of
evidence law
The law of evidence, also known as the rules of evidence, encompasses the rules and legal principles that govern the proof of facts in a legal proceeding. These rules determine what evidence must or must not be considered by the trier of f ...
, enacted by section 1 of Act 515 of 1988, under
Louisiana
Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...
Civil Law. The Code became effective on January 1st 1989, and governs proceedings in the
courts of Louisiana
Courts of Louisiana include:
;State courts of Louisiana
*Louisiana Supreme Court
**Louisiana Circuit Courts of Appeal (5 circuits)
*** Louisiana District Courts (42 districts)
;
;Federal courts located in Louisiana
*United States Court of Appe ...
to the extent and with the exceptions stated in Article 1101 of the Code. The Bill for Act 515 of 1988 was Senate Bill 155, introduced by Senator
Ben Bagert.
Laws for a code of evidence was introduced in 1818, 1956, 1986, and 1987. After nearly two centuries of failed attempts to codify Louisiana's evidence law, the
Louisiana State Legislature
The Louisiana State Legislature (french: Législature d'État de Louisiane) is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is a bicameral body, comprising the lower house, the Louisiana House of Representatives with 105 repres ...
enacted an Evidence Code in 1988.
History
The evidentiary reform movement began in Britain in the early nineteenth century under the leadership of
Jeremy Bentham
Jeremy Bentham (; 15 February 1748 Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates">O.S._4_February_1747.html" ;"title="Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="nowiki/>Old Style and New Style dates">O.S. 4 February 1747">Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.htm ...
. "Within a short time of the publication of Bentham's ‘Theory of Judicial Evidence’ in 1818, Louisiana's
Edward Livingston
Edward Livingston (May 28, 1764May 23, 1836) was an American jurist and statesman. He was an influential figure in the drafting of the Louisiana Civil Code of 1825, a civil code based largely on the Napoleonic Code. Livingston represented both ...
,
[Force, Pugh, Rault and Triche, "Louisiana Code of Evidence - A Retrospective and Prospective View" (1989) 49 La. L. Rev. 689] considered "America's Bentham", by
Wigmore,
[Jeremy Bentham
Jeremy Bentham (; 15 February 1748 Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates">O.S._4_February_1747.html" ;"title="Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="nowiki/>Old Style and New Style dates">O.S. 4 February 1747">Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.htm ...]
"> prepared and proposed to the Louisiana Legislature a Code of Evidence for this state, designed to govern proceedings in both civil and criminal cases. Had it been adopted, the development of evidence law in the United States might well have been very different. However, the Livingston Evidence Code was not enacted.
By the middle of the twentieth century, Louisiana evidence law had become notoriously murky and uncertain. This confusion led to a second attempt at codification in 1956. After some ten years of effort, the Louisiana Law Institute abandoned the project, in part because the contending forces simply could not agree.
Current law
In 1979 the quest for an evidence code was renewed by
Ben Bagert, a state legislator who was also a lawyer with an active litigation practice. By then, a Federal Code of Evidence had been adopted and Bagert had experienced, first hand, how justice was better served when the court and the litigants had a rule book to guide them. Because Bagert believed that these benefits were achievable in state court proceedings, he persuaded the Legislature to direct that a code of evidence be drafted. Following this directive, the Louisiana Law Institute again accepted the challenge of compiling a code and a proposal was published and submitted to the legislature in 1986. As with the Livingston Code and the 1956 attempt by the Law Institute, the Proposed Code proved controversial. What the plaintiff bar liked, the defense bar disliked. What prosecutors abhorred, criminal defense lawyers applauded. The Proposed Code did not come out of committee in the 1986 legislature. In the 1987 session, another stalemate
[Senate Bill by Senator Bagert was rejected.] blocked the adoption of Bagert’s bill proposing an Evidence Code.
Observers of the legislature were predicting a similar fate for the Proposed Code in the 1988 legislative session; however, as lead author of the bill, Bagert had been conducting frequent meetings with the competing forces who had doomed the codes of prior years. On the night before his bill was to be considered by Senate Committee, Senator Bagert, sensing that a compromise was achievable, convened a meeting of opposing factions in the Senate basement. In attendance besides Senator Bagert were Kerry Triche, of the Louisiana Law Institute; Jack Martzell, of the Louisiana Trial Lawyers Association; John Mamoulides and Bernie Boudreaux,
district attorneys representing the District Attorneys Association; and Robert Glass, Frank Desalvo, James E. Boren, and John Reed, eminent criminal defense lawyers. Just before midnight a compromise was achieved and additional amendments were drafted for consideration by the committee when morning arrived.
On the ensuing day, legislative observers were stunned to see that the competing adversaries had agreed to the enactment of an evidence code as amended. After the compromise, Senator Bagert’s bill was enacted by the legislature and signed into law by Governor Buddy Roemer.
References
Code of Evidence*Louisiana Code of Evidence Practice Guide. Third Edition. Michie. 2005. .
*West's Louisiana Code of Evidence Annotated
*Force and Rault. Handbook on Louisiana Evidence Law. 2014 edition. Thomson West. .
*
*
{{Reflist
See also
*
United States Federal Rules of Evidence
*
Evidence law
The law of evidence, also known as the rules of evidence, encompasses the rules and legal principles that govern the proof of facts in a legal proceeding. These rules determine what evidence must or must not be considered by the trier of f ...
*
Kearny Code
Louisiana law
Civil law (legal system)