Section 3.29 Federal Rule of Evidence 201

• Library: Sources of Proof (2014 Ed.)

The Federal Rules of Evidence are more narrow than the Missouri rule on judicial notice. Federal Rule of Evidence 201 applies only to adjudicative facts, not to legislative facts. Hargis v. Access Capital Funding, LLC, 674 F.3d 783, 792 (8^th Cir. 2012). Adjudicative facts are facts of a particular case that normally go to a jury in a jury case. Legislative facts are those used generally and that do not concern particular parties. Legislative facts entail things such as interpretations of statutes and of economic, political, and scientific matters. Qualley v. Clo-Tex Int’l, Inc., 212 F.3d 1123, 1127 (8^th Cir. 2000). The Eighth Circuit held in Qualley that it was error for the trial court to take judicial notice of facts that were legislative rather than adjudicative. Id. at 1127 (facts had to do with the universal publicity about fraud scams perpetrated by people from Nigeria on people from other countries).

As to the matter of judicial notice of law, the federal rule is founded on the assumption that the manner in which law is brought into the judicial process is a concern of the rules of procedure, not evidence. Presumably, motions...