Expert and Other Opinion Testimony Generally
Applied in 83 court decisions — leading case 34 Cal. 4th 1 - People v. Coffman (2004)
Most recently applied in 14 Cal. 5th 77 - People v. Camacho (November 2022)
Enacted by Stats. 1965, Ch. 299.
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.
If a witness is not testifying as an expert, his testimony in the form of an opinion is limited to such an opinion as is permitted by law, including but not limited to an opinion that is:
(a) Rationally based on the perception of the witness; and
(b) Helpful to a clear understanding of his testimony.
Official source: California Legislative Information. Reproduced from public-domain California statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.