Evidence of the good character of a witness is inadmissible to support his credibility unless evidence of his bad character has been admitted for the purpose of attacking his credibility.
Cal. Evid. Code § 790
Attacking or Supporting Credibility
Applied in 5 court decisions — leading case 47 Cal. 3d 1047 - People v. Harris (1989)
Most recently applied in Santillan v. Roman Catholic Bishop of Fresno (January 2012)
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.