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Cal. Evid. Code § 801

Expert and Other Opinion Testimony Generally

Applied in 310 court decisions — leading case 8 Cal. 4th 548 - Soule v. General Motors Corp. (1994)

Most recently applied in 15 Cal. 5th 433 - People v. Curiel (November 2023)

Enacted by Stats. 1965, Ch. 299.

How often courts cite this section

19671970198019902000201020202023170
citing decisions per year

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 testifying as an expert, his testimony in the form of an opinion is limited to such an opinion as is:

(a) Related to a subject that is sufficiently beyond common experience that the opinion of an expert would assist the trier of fact; and

(b) Based on matter (including his special knowledge, skill, experience, training, and education) perceived by or personally known to the witness or made known to him at or before the hearing, whether or not admissible, that is of a type that reasonably may be relied upon by an expert in forming an opinion upon the subject to which his testimony relates, unless an expert is precluded by law from using such matter as a basis for his opinion.

Official source: California Legislative Information. Reproduced from public-domain California statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.