Judicial Documents
Bouvier's Law Dictionary and Concise Encyclopedia · John Bouvier; revised by Francis Rawle · 1914
Bouvier's Law Dictionary and Concise Encyclopedia
The papers and proceedings which constitute or become part of the record of a litigation. They include the writs, pleadings, documentary proofs, verdicts, inquisitions, judgment, and decrees incident to a cause or judicial proceeding. Inquisitions, examinations, depositions, affidavits, and other written papers, when they have become proofs of its proceedings and are found remaining on the files of a judicial court, are judicial documents. A deposition after being received and filed as such is a judicial document and can only be proved as such, and is not admissible as a written statement or confession of deponent. It cannot be received in part and excluded in part; Hammatt v. Emerson, 27 Me. 308, 46 Am. Dec. 598. Judicial documents are thus classified by Starkie: 1. Judgments, decrees, and verdicts.
2.
Depositions, examinations, and inquisitions, taken in the course of a legal process.
3.
Writs, warrants, pleadings, bills, and answers, etc., which are incident to judicial proceedings. As to the admissibility and effect of such documents, see, generally, Stark. Ev., Sharsw. ed. [316].