§ 6.14 COMMON LAW "EXCEPTIONS" TO EVIDENCE

• Jurisdiction: United States

§ 6.14. COMMON LAW "EXCEPTIONS" TO EVIDENCE

At common law, objecting to evidence was not sufficient to preserve an issue for appeal. In addition, the party had to "except" after the judge made her ruling.¹⁰⁷ This practice existed when verbatim transcripts were not used and when counsel was required to prepare a bill of exceptions for appeal. By omitting any reference to the common law requirement of "excepting" to the trial court's ruling, Rule 103 abolishes this requirement.¹⁰⁸

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Notes:

^[107] See Morgan, Basic Problems of Evidence 54-55 (1962) ("At common law a ruling on evidence is not subject to review on writ of error unless an exception is noted and included in a bill of exceptions.").

^[108] See also Fed. R. Crim. P. 51(a) ("Exceptions to rulings or orders of the court are unnecessary.") Fed. R. Civ. P. 46 ("A formal...