ABSTRACT
Hearsay may be defi ned as any oral or written statement, made by a person other than the maker, which is offered in evidence to prove the truth of the matter asserted. Put more simply, it is evidence that aims to establish the existence of a fact not through the witness’s fi rst-hand knowledge, but through what a third party has stated out of court. The rule against the admissibility of hearsay evidence has traditionally been regarded as one of the defi ning features of the Anglo-American trial. Until recently, such statements, whether in oral or written form, were inadmissible at common law unless they fell within a common law or statutory exception.
