BASIC OBJECTIONS
This objection is used when a witness gives information that wasn’t asked for.
What is “non-responsive”?
This objection is used when evidence doesn’t help prove or disprove any fact in the case.
What is “irrelevant”?
When a witness offers an opinion they aren’t qualified to give.
What is “improper opinion”?
This objection stops questions that call for a “yes or no” when the issue is complex.
What is “calls for a conclusion”?
This exception applies when someone blurts something out in a shocking or stressful moment.
What is an “excited utterance”?
You use this objection when a witness repeats something another person said outside of court.
What is “hearsay”?
Even if relevant, you can object if the evidence is more harmful than helpful.
What is “more prejudicial than probative”?
When a witness gives medical or scientific opinions without being an expert.
What is “lack of expert foundation”?
Used when a question is unclear or confusing.
What is “vague and ambiguous”?
This exception covers statements about a person’s own feelings, emotions, or mental state at the time.
What is the “state of mind” exception?
This objection applies when the question suggests the answer within the question.
What is “leading”?
You use this when an attorney brings up prior criminal acts to make a witness look bad.
What is “improper character evidence”?
This objection stops a witness from narrating an entire story instead of answering the question.
What is “narrative”?
This objection applies when the attorney already got an answer but keeps asking the same thing.
What is “asked and answered”?
This exception lets in a statement made by the opposing party—something they said themselves that can be used against them in court.
What is an “admission by a party opponent”?
You raise this when an attorney asks two questions at once.
What is “compound question”?
This stops evidence used only to show a person acted the same way in the past.
What is “propensity evidence”?
When the witness contradicts sworn facts in the case file.
What is “beyond the scope of the case materials”?
Stops questions designed to bully or embarrass a witness.
What is “argumentative”?
This hearsay exception allows evidence about what a community commonly believes about a person’s character, family history, or boundaries of land.
What is the “reputation in the community” exception?
This objection stops testimony about things a witness could not possibly know.
What is “lack of personal knowledge”?
This objection applies when a question relies on facts not proven yet.
What is “assuming facts not in evidence”?
When a witness testifies about what another witness “would have said.”
What is “speculation”?
Used when the attorney interrupts the witness before they finish.
What is “badgering the witness”?
This exception allows a witness’s earlier sworn testimony from a hearing, deposition, or previous part of the trial to be used again—as long as the opposing side had a chance to question them the first time.
What is the “former testimony” exception?