judicial notice
Defined in 5 dictionaries — Case Law, Cyclopedic (1922), Ballentine's (1916), Black's (1910), Black's (1891)
Definitions from Case Law
From 301 U.S. 292 - Ohio Bell Telephone Co. v. Public Utilities Commission · 1937Most cited · 1,406 citing opinions
Courts take judicial notice of matters of common knowledge. They take judicial notice that there has been a depression, and that a decline of market values is one of its concomitants. How great the decline has been for this industry or that, for one material or another, in this year or the next, can be known only to the experts, who may even differ among themselves. Moreover, notice, even when taken, has no other effect than to relieve one of the parties to a controversy of the burden of resorting to the usual forms of evidence. 'It does not mean that the opponent is prevented from disputing the matter by evidence if he believes it disputable.
The Cyclopedic Law Dictionary
Walter A. Shumaker and George Foster Longsdorf; ed. James C. Cahill · 1922
The cognizance tak- »en by a court of matters of fact, without the production of evidence thereof. The matters of fact of which judicial notice will be taken are, in general, those of general notoriety, immemorial usage, or uniform national occurrence.
Ballentine's Law Dictionary
James A. Ballentine · 1916
Black's Law Dictionary
Henry Campbell Black, M.A. · 1910
The act by which a court, in conducting a trial, or framing its decision, will, of its own motion, and without the production of evidence, recognize the existence and truth of certain facts, having a bearing on the controversy at bsr, and which, from their nature, are not properly the subject of testimony, or which are universally regarded as established by common notoriety, e. g., the laws of the state, international law, historical evenis, the constitution and course of nature, main geographical features, etc. North Hempstead v. Gregory, 53 App. Div. 350, 65 N. Y. Supp. 867; State v. Main, 69 Conn. 123, 37 Atl. 80, 36 L. R. A. 623, 61 Am. St Rep. 30.
Defined under Notice in Black's Law Dictionary.
A Dictionary of Law
Henry Campbell Black · 1891
Theact by which a court, in conducting a trial, or framing its decision, will, of its own motion, and without the production of evidence, recognize the existence and truth of certain facts, having a bearing on the controversy at bar, and which, from their nature, are not properly the subject of testimony, or which are universally regarded as established by common notoriety, e. g., the laws of the state, inter- — national law, historical events, the constitution and course of nature, main geographical features, ete.