Evidence of traits of his character other than honesty or veracity, or their opposites, is inadmissible to attack or support the credibility of a witness.
Cal. Evid. Code § 786
Attacking or Supporting Credibility
Applied in 18 court decisions — leading case 47 Cal. 3d 1047 - People v. Harris (1989)
Most recently applied in People v. Casares (February 2016)
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.