Relevance (including Materiality)

• Library: Objections Guidebook (2022 Ed.)

Relevance (Including Materiality)

Form of Objection

· Irrelevant

- As insufficiently probative

- As injecting collateral matter

- As unduly time-consuming

- As being a matter on which other, less inflammatory evidence is available

- As being too remote

- As unduly inflammatory or unduly prejudicial (unfairly appealing to emotions)

General Rule

· Except when incompetent as a matter of evidentiary law, evidence is admissible if it tends to prove an issue material to the particular action (logical relevance) unless its probative value is outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice, confusion of the issues, or misleading the jury or by considerations of undue delay, waste of time, or needless presentation of cumulative evidence (legal relevance). Missouri courts frequently say that a determination of evidence involves a two-step inquiry on relevance: First, it must be determined if the evidence is logically relevant, and second...