Maryland medical malpractice attorney Marcus Boston explains what is hearsay in Maryland trials.

A couple of days ago we did a video which dealt with what does objection mean during a Maryland jury trial. It was a very good video and some people asked us to go a little further in explaining what is hearsay based on Maryland law? If you are watching this video right now as a law school student studying Evidence, and having a challenging time with this, be encouraged that it does get better in the “real world’ I think.

Hearsay is an out of court statement used to prove the truth of the matter that is asserted. A good way to look at this is when a witness does not have personal knowledge on the matter their testimony is looking to prove. The best way to understand this is through an example.

Lets say that a witness in a criminal case is trying to testify that the defendant was the one who hit the victim first, to show that the defendant was the initial aggressor. But it is determined that the witness never saw who hit who first. The witness learned who hit who through talking with a police investigator after the fact. The testimony of the victim would be hearsay because the victim has no personal knowledge of who was the initial aggressor.

But you have to keep in mind that there are “exceptions” to the hearsay rule and things defined as “non hearsay.” These issues are outside the scope of this video but I wanted to let you know that these are things you have to keep in mind. If you have a Maryland legal question regarding trials or a possible medical malpractice case, pick up the phone and give me a call. I can be reached at 301-850-4832. If email is better you can send me an email at medicalinjury “at” bostonlawllc.com (Remember to replace the “at” with @. We write the email this way to combat email spammers). We answer questions like yours all the time and we would be glad to hear your story.

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Marcus Boston is a Maryland medical malpractice attorney who helps people navigate the Maryland childbirth injury and medical malpractice process to get money for their injuries caused by the carelessness of doctors and hospitals.