MBE Rules · Evidence
Judicial notice of adjudicative facts
FRE 201
The rule
A court may take judicial notice of an adjudicative fact that is not subject to reasonable dispute because it is (1) 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. Notice is mandatory if requested and supplied with the necessary information; may be taken at any stage. In civil cases the jury must accept the fact as conclusive; in criminal cases the jury may but is not required to accept the fact.
In plain English
Judicial notice bypasses the need to prove obvious or easily verifiable facts (the date of a holiday, the location of a highway, a calendar day of the week). The civil/criminal distinction on jury instruction is a favorite trap.
The trap
In a criminal case, a mandatory jury instruction that a noticed fact is 'conclusive' violates the defendant's Sixth Amendment jury trial right.
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