Federal Rules of Evidence & Comparable State Evidence Rules

Updated Nov. 20, 2008.
Prepared by Cheryl Nyberg for Peter Nicolas's Evidence class. Updated in 2004 with the assistance of Jen Locke.

Legal Research Guides

• Federal Rules of Evidence: Sources and Commentary
• State Correlations to the Federal Rules of Evidence
• Sources of State Evidence Rules
• Sources on Proposed / Recently Adopted Amendments to State Evidence Rules
• Strategies for Finding History Information on State Evidence Rules
• Selected CALR State Practice Materials on Evidence

Federal Rules of Evidence: Sources & Commentary

This section identifies print and online sources of the text of the Federal Rules of Evidence and secondary sources that analyze the rules.

Print Only Sources

• Federal Rules of Evidence Handbook, KF8931.7.F4 at Classified Stacks.
• Federal Rules of Evidence: Legislative Histories and Related Documents, KF8931.8 1980a at Classified Stacks.
• Federal Rules of Evidence with Advisory Committee Notes and Legislative History, KF8935.M84 at Classified Stacks.

Sources Exclusive to LexisNexis: LITGAT

• EVDFND, Evidentiary Foundations 5th by Imwinkelried
• EVIDTC, Federal Evidence Tactics by Imwinkelried & Schlueter
• FCTEVD, Federal Courtroom Evidence
• FEDEVD, Weissenberger, Federal Evidence
• FDEVCM,.Federal Evidence Courtroom Manual
• FREMAN, Federal Rules of Evidence Manual by Saltzburg, Martin & Capra
• FEDPRG, Federal Evidence Practice Guide by McLaughlin
• FREVID, Federal Rules of Evidence with Objections
• PGFE, A Practical Guide to Federal Evidence by Bocchino & Sonenshein
• TRICLE, ALI-ABA Course of Study, Trial Evidence
• WIGMOR, The New Wigmore on Evidence

Sources Exclusive to Westlaw

• FEDEV, Federal Evidence by Mueller & Kirkpatrick
• FEDEVID-OBJ, Federal Rules of Evidence with Trial Objections by Gibbons
• FEDRLSERV, Federal Rules of Evidence by Rothstein
• HEARSAY, Hearsay Handbook by Binder
• MAJLTG-TLF, Major litigation treatises and legal forms
• YFREVID, Young's Federal Rules of Evidence

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State Correlations to the Federal Rules of Evidence

Weinstein's Federal Evidence, 2d ed. 6 vols. Looseleaf. 1997-date. KF8935.W39 1997 at Reference Area.

Vol. 6 includes "Table of State and Military Adaptations of Federal Rules of Evidence." Rule-by-rule, identifies state evidence rules identical or similar to the federal rules for the 42 states (including Puerto Rico) that have evidence rules based on the FRE (excluding California, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Massachusetts, Missouri, New York, Virginia, and the Virgin Islands).

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Sources of State Evidence Rules

Although most states have court rules on evidence, some state evidence rules appear in their statutory codes.

* XX represents the two-letter state postal code abbreviation. 

Bibliography: "Sources of Rules of State Courts," 82 Law Library Journal 761 (1990) (Reference Area & Compact Stacks).

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Sources on Proposed / Recently Adopted Amendments to State Evidence Rules

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Strategies for Finding History Information on State Evidence Rules

How did a state's evidence rules develop? If the state rules vary from the Federal Rules, why? Secondary sources (law review articles and practice materials) offer information on the history and development of state evidence rules. Try one (or two!) of the following strategies to locate these secondary sources.

	Indexes law review articles published since 1980. Include name of state and keywords associated with the issue. "missouri and hearsay" or "illinois and physician and privilege".
	Provides PDF images of hundreds of law reviews. Search by phrase or keyword.
	Retrieve the evidence rule, then view the citing references to identify law review articles and practice materials that are also available on Westlaw.
	Provide references only for evidence provisions that are part of the statutes, not court rules.

State practice materials. Some sources are available on LexisNexis and Westlaw (see table below). Although the Law Library does not collect practice materials from other states extensively, you can search the online catalog to find what we have. Marian by keyword "california and evidence." A state-by-state bibliography of practice materials and continuing legal education publications is available in the Reference Office: Searching the Law, the States: A Selective Bibliography of State Practice Materials in the 50 States, 4th ed. KF240.D69 2003. Search combined library catalogs like Summit  and ShareLaw to see if any cooperating libraries have the practice materials you seek. (Read more about Summit on the Circulation page.) If not, submit an interlibrary loan request to obtain books you have identified.

Selected CALR State Practice Materials on Evidence

LexisNexis and Westlaw offer a variety of practice materials for many, but not all, states. This material comes in two types: practice series (comparable to Washington Practice) and material produced for continuing legal education (CLE) programs. Washington CLE materials are available on Loislaw, which is free to law students. For more information, see CALR Access by UW Law Students, Faculty, Staff, and Librarians. 

** CLE databases include at least one distinct title on evidence law.

State

LexisNexis LITGAT

Westlaw