Rule 201. Judicial notice of adjudicative facts

Judicial notice of adjudicative facts.

(a) Scope of rule. This rule governs only judicial notice of adjudicative facts.

(b) Kinds of facts. A judicially noticed fact must be one not subject to reasonable dispute in that it is either (1) generally known within the territorial jurisdiction of the trial court or (2) capable of accurate and ready determination by resort to sources whose accuracy cannot reasonably be questioned.

(c) When discretionary. A court may take judicial notice whether requested or not.

(d) When mandatory. A court shall take judicial notice if requested by a party and supplied with the necessary information.

(e) Opportunity to be heard. A party is entitled upon timely request to an opportunity to be heard as to the propriety of taking judicial notice and the tenor of the matter noticed. In the absence of prior notification, the request may be made after judicial notice has been taken.

(f) Time of taking notice. Judicial notice may be taken at any stage of the proceeding.

(g) Instructing jury. In a civil action or proceeding, the court shall instruct the jury to accept as conclusive any fact judicially noticed. In a criminal case, the court shall instruct the jury that it may, but is not required to, accept as conclusive any fact judicially noticed.

Committee Notes

Advisory Committee’s Notes Section (a). Scope of rule. Rule 201, adopted verbatim from the corresponding Federal Rule of Evidence, deals with judicial notice of adjudicative facts only. No effort is made to set forth rules to govern the process of judicially noticing what authorities in the field have categorized as legislative facts. The latter form of judicial notice is left to continue its evolution and application under the common law. As one author has observed: “In practice, the line between legislative facts and adjudicative facts is often indistinct. In theory, however, the two types of facts are quite different.” W. Schroeder, Judicial Notice in Alabama, 34 Ala.L.Rev. 197, 228 (1983). Adjudicative facts, governed by this rule, are “simply the facts of the particular case.” Fed.R.Evid. 201 advisory committee’s note. These facts are normally proven by putting a witness on the stand. Judicial notice, however, permits the judge to dispense with this procedure when the facts are beyond reasonable controversy and possess a high degree of indisputability. This process is well described as follows: “When a court or an agency finds facts concerning the immediate parties – who did what, where, when, how, and with what motive or intent – the court or agency is performing an adjudicative function, and the facts are conveniently called adjudicative.... Stated in other terms, the adjudicative facts are those to which the law is applied in the process of adjudication. They are the facts that normally go to the jury in a jury case. They relate to the parties, their activities, their properties, their businesses.” 2 K. Davis, Administrative Law Treatise § 15.03, at 353 (1958). The concept of judicially noticing adjudicative facts has a long history of application in Alabama courts. See, e.g., Peebles v. Miley, 439 So.2d 137 (Ala.1983) (court judicially knows that great majority of collections are done on a contingent fee basis); Edwards v. Edwards, 333 So.2d 597 (Ala.Civ.Ap