ABSTRACT
The basic principle underlying the exceptions to the hearsay rule is that some types of hearsay are generally reliable. In the course of daily life, when we encounter such instances of hearsay we typically assume the statements are true although they are hearsay. This does not mean these statements really are true; it merely means that unless we have evidence to the contrary, we assume these statements to be true. For almost all exceptions to the hearsay rule, we can think of cases in which the statement is not true; nevertheless, these statements are true in the vast majority of instances in which we encounter such statements. The §rst three exceptions to the hearsay rule, which appear in the Federal Rules of Evidence (FRE) Rule 803, illustrate this concept.
