Miss. R. Evid. 201

As amended through March 21, 2024

Rule 201 - Judicial Notice

(a) Scope. This rule governs judicial notice of an adjudicative fact only, not a legislative fact.

(b)Kinds of Facts That May Be Judicially Noticed. The court may judicially notice a fact that is not subject to reasonable dispute because it:

(1) is generally known within the trial court's territorial jurisdiction; or

(2) can be accurately and readily determined from sources whose accuracy cannot reasonably be questioned.

(c)Taking Notice. The court:

(1) may take judicial notice on its own; or

(2) must take judicial notice if a party requests it and the court is supplied with the necessary information.

(d)Timing. The court may take judicial notice at any stage of the proceeding.

(e)Opportunity to Be Heard. On timely request, a party is entitled to be heard on the propriety of taking judicial notice and the nature of the fact to be noticed. If the court takes judicial notice before notifying a party, the party, on request, is still entitled to be heard.

(f)Instructing the Jury. In a civil case, the court must instruct the jury to accept the noticed fact as conclusive. In a criminal case, the court must instruct the jury that it may or may not accept the noticed fact as conclusive.

Miss. R. Evid. 201

Restyled eff. 7/1/2016.

Advisory Committee Note

The language of Rule 201 has been amended as part of the restyling of the Evidence Rules to make them more easily understood and to make style and terminology consistent throughout the rules. Subdivision (a) has been reworded to underscore that Rule 201 does not cover the entire field of judicial notice. Rather, it governs only judicial notice of "adjudicative" facts - the facts of the particular case - not "legislative" facts. No Rule deals with judicial notice of legislative facts. The Rule has also been restructured, combining two subdivisions and reordering others. These changes are intended to be stylistic only. There is no intent to change any result in any ruling on evidence admissibility.

(a) The entire codification of the law of judicial notice is in Rule 201. Professor Kenneth Davis, in his now famous article, "An Approach to Problems of Evidence in the Administrative Process," 65 Harv.L.Rev. 364 (1942), divided judicial notice into two parts, adjudicative and legislative. Adjudicative facts are easily understood; they are specific to the litigation. Legislative facts, on the other hand, are more amorphous. To determine legislative facts one must look at the public policy or policies involved in judge-made law. Despite the existence of two types of judicial notice, Rule 201 only governs judicial notice of adjudicative facts. A court's application of judicial notice of legislative facts is more an inherent part of the judicial process rather than an evidentiary matter.

(b) Subsection (b) provides that only certain kinds of facts may be susceptible to judicial notice. The first kind of fact that can be judicially noticed is one that is commonly known in the jurisdiction in which the court sits. The judge himself need not know the fact. Indeed, it is altogether irrelevant whether he does. The test is whether the fact is common knowledge in the area. The use of judicial notice for matters of common knowledge has long been practiced in Mississippi. On what street the local department store is located is the kind of commonly known fact of which a court may take judicial notice. The second kind of fact susceptible to judicial notice is one readily ascertainable. This would include such items as maps, census data, mortality tables, dates and time, and history. See Ellis and Williams, Miss. Evid. 12-2 and the cases cited therein. See also Nicketta v. National Tea Co., 338 Ill.App. 159, 87 N.E.2d 30 (1949), and Walls v. Mississippi State Bar, 437 So.2d 30, 33 (Miss. 1983).

Subsection (b) does not allow judicial notice to be used when the fact is a dubious one or one in controversy.

(c), (d) Subsections (c) and (d) govern the use of the judicial discretion. The judge has discretion to take judicial notice of adjudicative facts, regardless of whether a party has requested him to do so. The basis for the exercise of such discretion is to expedite matters. On occasion a judge may be required to take judicial notice. If a party makes a request and supplies the judge with the necessary information, he must take judicial notice.

(e) Subsection (e) provides for a procedure not formerly required in Mississippi. By providing an opportunity for a hearing on the matter of judicial notice, the rule is a safeguard for fairness. If a party requests an opportunity to be heard, under the rule he must be granted that opportunity. Because frequently there is no advance notice that judicial notice will be taken, a party has a right to be heard even after judicial notice has been taken.

(g) Subsection (g) contains an important deviation from pre-rule Mississippi practice. The common law rule in Mississippi had been that evidence admitted pursuant to judicial notice was not conclusive. Subsection (g), insofar as it concerns criminal cases, is not inconsistent with that rule. However, in civil cases under subsection (g) the jury must accept such evidence as conclusive. The jury in criminal cases may choose to accept the evidence or reject it. This avoids any possible allegation that the defendant's right to a jury trial under the Sixth Amendment was violated.

["Advisory Committee Note" substituted for "Comment," effective June 16, 2016; amended July 1, 2016, to note restyling.]

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