Court rejects proposal to expand hearsay rule.

An expansion of the hearsay rule to allow depositions and former testimony to be used even when a witness is available has been rejected by the Florida Supreme Court. But the high court declined to address the constitutionality of the legislation.

The court acted recently in In Re:Amendments to the Florida Evidence Code, case no. SC00-607.

The court followed the recommendations of the Bar Code and Rules of Evidence Committee in adopting as rules of the court several laws passed by the legislature in the last four years as part of the evidence code. But, adhering to the committee's advice, it did not adopt Chapter 98-2, Section 1, which amended F.S. 90.803(22).

In a per curiam opinion, the justices noted that former Gov. Lawton Chiles had initially vetoed the bill, but the legislature had overridden the veto in 1998. The committee and other opponents cited many of the same concerns as Chiles in his veto message, including, "(1) the amendment violates a defendant's constitutional right to confront adverse witnesses; (2) this expanded former-testimony hearsay exception would result in 'trial by deposition,' thereby precluding the fact-finder from evaluating witness credibility; (3) the amendment simply strips the section 904.804(2)(a) former-testimony exception of its 'unavailability' requirement, thereby making the section 90.804 obsolete; (4) the amendment is inconsistent with several rules of procedure, thereby causing confusion as to which rule should control; and (5) the expanded hearsay exception will shift expense burdens relating to the introduction of evidence from the proponent of the testimony to the party against whom the testimony is being offered who wi ll have to call witnesses in order to challenge the testimony."

Most of those filing comments on that law urged the court to declare it procedural and refuse to adopt it. (The Florida...