ARTICLE 8. Official Records and Other Official Writings [1280. - 1285.]

Cal. Evidence Code - EVID 8.

in effect

Cal. Evidence Code - EVID § 1280. Section 1280.

Evidence of a writing made as a record of an act, condition, or event is not made inadmissible by the hearsay rule when offered in any civil or criminal proceeding to prove the act, condition, or event if all of the following applies: (a) The writing was made by and within the scope of duty of a public employee. (b) The writing was made at or near the time of the act, condition, or event. (c) The sources of information and method and time of preparation were such as to indicate its trustworthiness.

Cal. Evidence Code - EVID § 1281. Section 1281.

Evidence of a writing made as a record of a birth, fetal death, death, or marriage is not made inadmissible by the hearsay rule if the maker was required by law to file the writing in a designated public office and the writing was made and filed as required by law.

Cal. Evidence Code - EVID § 1282. Section 1282.

A written finding of presumed death made by an employee of the United States authorized to make such finding pursuant to the Federal Missing Persons Act (56 Stats. 143, 1092, and P.L. 408, Ch. 371, 2d Sess. 78th Cong.; 50 U.S.C. App. 1001–1016), as enacted or as heretofore or hereafter amended, shall be received in any court, office, or other place in this state as evidence of the death of the person therein found to be dead and of the date, circumstances, and place of his disappearance.

Cal. Evidence Code - EVID § 1283. Section 1283.

An official written report or record that a person is missing, missing in action, interned in a foreign country, captured by a hostile force, beleaguered by a hostile force, beseiged by a hostile force, or detained in a foreign country against his will, or is dead or is alive, made by an employee of the United States authorized by any law of the United States to make such report or record shall be received in any court, office, or other place in this state as evidence that such person is missing, missing in action, interned in a foreign country, captured by a hostile force, beleaguered by a hostile force, besieged by a hostile force, or detained in a foreign country against his will, or is dead or is alive.

Cal. Evidence Code - EVID § 1284. Section 1284.

Evidence of a writing made by the public employee who is the official custodian of the records in a public office, reciting diligent search and failure to find a record, is not made inadmissible by the hearsay rule when offered to prove the absence of a record in that office.

Cal. Evidence Code - EVID § 1285. Section 1285.

Within an official written report or record of a law enforcement officer regarding a sexual offense that resulted in a person’s conviction, the following statements are not made inadmissible by the hearsay rule at the civil hearing described in Section 6602 of the Welfare and Institutions Code when offered to prove the truth of the matter stated: (a) A statement from a victim of the sexual offense. (b) A statement from an eyewitness to the sexual offense. (c) A statement from a sexual assault medical examiner who examined a victim of the sexual offense.

Source: CA Legislative Counsel Bulk DataURL: https://downloads.leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/pubinfo_2025.zipFetched: 6/27/2026