Pleading Admissibility

Brien Roche

On occasion there arises an issue of the admissibility of pleadings.  Virginia Code § 8.01-381 says that no pleading is to be carried from the courtroom by the jury.  That means that a copy of the Complaint will not be admitted into evidence. The jury will not take it from the courtroom back into the jury room.  

However can the pleadings sometimes be used either as substantive evidence i.e., as an admission or for purposes of impeaching the witness?  If a party reviewed the pleadings, authorized the attorney to sign them and to file them, then the client may be bound by them.  Factual statements that are made in the pleadings may then be an admission.  That probably only applies to statements of fact. This assumes the proper foundation as stated above has been laid.  

Pleading Admissibility-Completeness

If the pleading is going to be used for some purpose, then the rule of completeness may apply.  Virginia Rule 2-106 says that when part of a writing is introduced then, at the request of the other party, the court may require that the document be put into proper context.  The purpose of that rule is simply to provide for fairness.  That is if the part used by one attorney is taken out of context, then it needs to be put into context.  

Of course if that happens, then the party who was attempting to use the pleading needs to be wary.  It could be that party is then bound by those other parts of the pleading put into evidence.

In addition to being used in some instances as admissions or as substantive evidence, the pleadings could also be used for impeachment.  However the same foundation would have to be laid. That is the party read the pleading, approved the pleading and authorized the attorney to file the pleading. 

Call, or contact us for a free consult. Also for more info on pleading admissibility see the Wikipedia pages. Also see the page on this site dealing with Brien Roche’s publication one of which deals with objections.