Guide to Evidence

Guide to Evidence Supplement to the 2022 Massachusetts Guide to Evidence

Adopted Date: 01/01/2022

Table of Contents

Supplement

Section

Text

Section 202(c) & Note, Judicial Notice of Law A court may take judicial notice of municipal ordinances that are publicly available and widely disseminated on the Commonwealth’s official website. City Council of Springfield v. Mayor of Springfield, 489 Mass. 184, 190 n.6 (2022) (signaling reconsideration of rule prohibiting judicial notice of municipal ordinances and bylaws).
Section 702, Note, Illustrations – Fingerprints It is not enough for an expert to avoid testifying that a fingerprint match is one hundred percent certain; the Commonwealth has an affirmative duty to elicit on direct examination the expert’s testimony that the match is an opinion based on the expert’s education, training, and experience. Commonwealth v. Robertson, 489 Mass. 226, 238 (2022) (suggesting prosecutors ask whether witness has an opinion “to a reasonable degree of fingerprint analysis certainty”). 

Contact

Help Us Improve Mass.gov with your feedback

Feedback