Evidence MBE Tip Of The Day

Answer to the Evidence MBE Question

Subject: Evidence

Legal Issue: Witness testimony

Legal Rule and Analysis: A lay witness’s opinion is admissible if it is rationally based on the witness’s perception/personal knowledge; helpful to determining a fact; and not based on scientific, technical, or other specialized knowledge.  The fact that a witness is a family member of one of the parties will not automatically bar the witness from testifying.  As long as the three requirements are met, the witness will be allowed to testify.

In this case, the daughter meets all three of the requirements in order to testify as to the behavior of the defendant while the daughter was present.  We are told that she specifically wishes to testify as to behavior that occurred while she was around.  Thus, the daughter had personal knowledge of what the defendant was doing.  Second, this testimony would be helpful in determining a fact – namely what actions and interactions occurred between the defendant and the woman.  Third, she is not testifying as to anything that requires any sort of specialized knowledge.  She is not drawing any conclusions regarding whether her mother exhibits any of the characteristics of the abuse victims that she studies.  She is merely testifying as to what she observed.

Conclusion: The daughter will be allowed to testify because she is a lay witness testifying to something she has personal knowledge of.

Look at the answer choices provided. Choose an answer choice that matches your conclusion. Review the other answer choices provided.  The answer choice (B) is therefore correct. (A) is incorrect because the daughter is not testifying as to anything regarding the typical behavior of abuse victims.  Thus, her qualifications are irrelevant.  She is merely testifying as to what she observed, and therefore she is merely a lay witness.  (C) is incorrect because the presence of some sort of bias does not automatically prohibit a witness from testifying. The defense is free to try to impeach the daughter by presenting evidence of the family relationship, but any potential bias is to be evaluated by the jury.  They will decide how much weight to place on her testimony. (D) is incorrect because the daughter’s qualifications are irrelevant.  She is seeking to testify solely to something she has witnessed and is not utilizing any sort of specialized skill or knowledge to reach a conclusion.

Whether being a student studying the behavior of abuse victims rises to the level of satisfactory qualifications for an expert witness has no bearing on her specific testimonial purpose.  If she were seeking to testify as to whether the behavior of her mother matched that of a typical abuse victim, then we would need to evaluate her qualifications.  But all she wants to testify to is the behavior of the defendant she witnessed during the summer.  No qualifications are necessary for this.

Evidence MBE Tip: Don’t get distracted by facts that are there to mislead you!  The examiners love trying to lead you in the wrong direction.  This is by design, to test how well you really know the rules and when they should be applied.  The more practice questions you do, the more likely you are to avoid falling into these traps.  Take the rules and be straightforward in your application of them. Some of the answer choices might sound nice and have some relation to something mentioned in the fact pattern.  But if you really think about it, they have no relevancy in helping you answer the question.  Don’t make MBE questions harder than they need to be!