TITLE TWO — JUDICIAL NOTICE
Rule 201. Judicial Notice of Adjudicative Facts
Scope. This section governs judicial notice of an adjudicative fact only, not a legislative fact. Judicial notice of law is governed by Rule 202.
Kinds of Facts That May Be Judicially Noticed. The court may judicially notice a fact that is not subject to reasonable dispute because it:
is generally known within the trial court’s territorial jurisdiction; or
can be accurately and readily determined from sources whose accuracy cannot reasonably be questioned.
When Taken. A court may take judicial notice at any stage of the proceeding, whether requested or not, except a court shall not take judicial notice in a criminal trial of any element of an alleged offense.
Opportunity to Be Heard. On timely request, a party is entitled to be heard on the propriety of taking judicial notice and the nature of the fact to be noticed. If the court takes judicial notice before notifying a party, the party, on request, is still entitled to be heard.
Court Records and the Docket. The court may judicially notice its own records and the records of any court of this State, including:
the existence of a case, its case number, its court, its type, its status, and the parties recorded upon it;
the fact and date of a filing, the filing code it bears, the Bates number assigned to it, and its status as tendered, filed, accepted, or rejected;
the fact, date, and terms of an order, judgment, or ruling entered; and
the issuance of a summons and the particulars of service recorded upon a party record. Judicial notice of a filing establishes that the filing was made and what it states. It does not establish the truth of any matter asserted within a document comprising it, which is admissible only as these rules otherwise provide.
Records Not Available to the Parties. The court shall not judicially notice, in a proceeding, a filing or record that the electronic filing system withholds from the parties to that proceeding, including a filing recorded as tendered or rejected and a record of a sealed matter, except that the court may notice its own record in the same case, stating on the record what it notices.
Time and the Calendar. The court may judicially notice that the electronic filing system records every date and time in Coordinated Universal Time; the date and hour it records for an event; the correspondence of a date to a day of the week; and the elapsed time between two recorded events. Time so noticed runs continuously; the court shall not notice a court day, a business day, a filing cutoff hour, or a holiday, none of which exists for the computation of time.
Requesting Judicial Notice. A party requesting judicial notice shall:
state the fact to be noticed with precision;
state the ground under Rule 201(2) on which it is not subject to reasonable dispute; and
supply the source, which may be supplied by filing it as an exhibit through the electronic filing system, by identifying a record of the court by case number and Bates number, or, where the source is a published record of the State, by citation to it. The request may be made by motion or on the record in the proceeding communications. The court may decline to take notice where the requesting party does not supply the necessary information.
Statement on the Record. Where the court takes judicial notice, it shall state on the record the fact noticed and the source from which it was determined.
Instructing the Trier of Fact.
In a civil case, the court shall instruct the jury to accept the noticed fact as conclusive.
In a criminal case, the court shall instruct the jury that it may, but is not required to, accept the noticed fact as conclusive.
Where no jury sits, the court shall state on the record that it accepts the noticed fact and, in a criminal case, that it does so subject to Rule 201(3).
Limits. Judicial notice shall not be employed:
to establish an element of an alleged offense in a criminal trial, as Rule 201(3) provides;
to receive a statement that the rule against hearsay excludes, or to establish the truth of matter asserted in a document, a recording, a capture, a log, or an in-game record;
to resolve a fact that is the subject of reasonable dispute between the parties, however convenient its resolution would be; or
Reconsideration. On motion made before the close of the evidence, or on its own, the court may reconsider or vacate the taking of judicial notice, and shall so state on the record and, where a jury sits, instruct the jury.
Judicial Notice on Review. The Supreme Court may take judicial notice under this rule, in the manner and upon the conditions its rules provide.