As used in this article, “preliminary fact” means a fact upon the existence or nonexistence of which depends the admissibility or inadmissibility of evidence. The phrase “the admissibility or inadmissibility of evidence” includes the qualification or disqualification of a person to be a witness and the existence or nonexistence of a privilege.
Cal. Evid. Code § 400
Preliminary Determinations on Admissibility of Evidence
Applied in 25 court decisions — leading case 41 Cal. 4th 872 - People v. Hoyos (2007)
Most recently applied in 223 Cal. App. 4th 72 - Gonzalez v. Santa Clara County Department of Social Services (January 2014)
Enacted by Stats. 1965, Ch. 299.
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: California Legislative Information. Reproduced from public-domain California statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.