{"id":25585,"date":"2026-03-31T11:45:47","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T15:45:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/?p=25585"},"modified":"2026-03-31T11:45:47","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T15:45:47","slug":"hearsay-definition-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/hearsay-definition-law\/","title":{"rendered":"What Is Hearsay? The Legal Definition and How It Affects Your Criminal Case"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Hearsay Legal Definition<\/h2>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float: left; margin: 0 20px 10px 0; height: auto;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/John-Webb-Headshot.png\" alt=\"Professional headshot of a middle-aged man in dark suit and blue tie against brick background.\" width=\"250\" align=\"left\" \/><br \/>\n<strong>Hearsay<\/strong> is an out-of-court statement offered in evidence to prove the truth of the matter asserted. Under <a href=\"https:\/\/mainecourtrules.org\/evidence\/rule-801\/\">Maine Rule of Evidence 801(c)<\/a>, a statement qualifies as hearsay when a person makes it outside of court proceedings. A party then tries to use it at trial to prove that what the person said is true. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.cornell.edu\/uscode\/text\/1\/101\">Federal Rule of Evidence 801(c)<\/a> uses the same definition.<\/p>\n<p>Here is a plain-language example. A witness takes the stand and says, &#8220;My neighbor told me he saw the defendant at the scene.&#8221; That testimony is hearsay. The neighbor made the statement outside court. The witness is repeating it to prove the defendant was actually there. The neighbor is not under oath. The defense attorney cannot cross-examine the neighbor about what he saw.<\/p>\n<div class=\"read_more_link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/hearsay-definition-law\/\"  title=\"Continue Reading What Is Hearsay? The Legal Definition and How It Affects Your Criminal Case\" class=\"more-link\">Continue Reading \u203a<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hearsay Legal Definition Hearsay is an out-of-court statement offered in evidence to prove the truth of the matter asserted. Under Maine Rule of Evidence 801(c), a statement qualifies as hearsay when a person makes it outside of court proceedings. A party then tries to use it at trial to prove that what the person said [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24712,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-criminal-defense","category-maine-criminal-law"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Hearsay Definition in Law | Webb Law Maine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"What is hearsay in law? 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