Preamble
Pursuant to the authority conferred by Part II, Article 73-a of the New Hampshire Constitution, the Supreme Court of New Hampshire amends the Rules of Evidence as provided below. The rules were first adopted by the New Hampshire Supreme Court on January 18, 1985, effective July 1, 1985 and were modeled on the Federal Rules of Evidence. Because the Federal Rules of Evidence have been amended several times since 1985, the New Hampshire Supreme Court asked a Committee chaired by the Honorable David A. Garfunkel and Professor John B. Garvey to undertake a review of the New Hampshire Rules of Evidence to determine whether any changes should be made.
In an August 3, 2015 report to the Court, the New Hampshire Rules of Evidence Update Committee ("NHRE Update Committee") made a number of recommendations to amend the rules after considering whether changes that have been made to the Federal Rules of Evidence since 1985 should also be made to the New Hampshire Rules of Evidence. The Court referred the report to the New Hampshire Supreme Court Advisory Committee on Rules in early 2016. The Advisory Committee on Rules held a public hearing on the rules on June 3, 2016 and made a number of changes to the rules based on the comments it received at the public hearing.
Many of the changes recommended by the NHRE Update Committee and the Advisory Committee on Rules and which the Court has adopted are stylistic and are designed to ensure, where appropriate, that the language of the New Hampshire Rule is identical to the language of the federal rule. The NHRE Update Committee and the Advisory Committee on Rules did recommend some substantive changes to the rules. A "2016 NHRE Update Committee Note" following the relevant rule indicates whether a substantive change has been made to the rule, and, if so, why. The "Reporter's Notes" that were included when the New Hampshire Rules of Evidence were adopted in 1985 have not been updated.
Where the rule amendments are stylistic only, they are not intended to change existing case law that has developed under the rule. In interpreting the rules, New Hampshire case law has primacy over federal case law.