Montgomery County Criminal Defense Attorney - Texas Rule of Evidence Series RULE 706

Montgomery County Criminal Defense Attorney - Brian Foley - Board Certified in Criminal Law.

I know you have come here hoping to be educated, entertained, and enchanted? Okay maybe just the first two. Well I'm going to deliver on absolutely zero of those today because Rule 706 is really specific and useless unless you have a civil hearing involving an audit of some kind.

Rule 706 says that no matter what the other rules of evidence say the court MUST admit an auditor's verified report if it is prepared according to Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 172. Who made court appointed auditors the unquestionable arbiters of truth above the discretion of a Judge? I don't know. But those people convince the Texas Supreme Court to adopt this rule. Lets take a look at Rule of Civil Procedure 172.

When an investigation of accounts or examination of vouchers appears necessary for the purpose of justice between the parties to any suit, the court shall appoint an auditor or auditors to state the accounts between the parties and to make report thereof to the court as soon as possible. The auditor shall verify his report by his affidavit stating that he has carefully examined the state of the account between the parties, and that his report contains a true statement thereof, so far as the same has come within his knowledge. Exceptions to such report or of any item thereof must be filed within 30 days of the filing of such report. The court shall award reasonable compensation to such auditor to be taxed as costs of suit.

Rule 172 - Audit, Tex. R. Civ. P. 172

Wow great . . . most boring rule of Evidence that we have. This rule is about audits which is so boring that the court required admission of these reports so that nobody else has to think about the mundane task of auditing more than necessary. What is the lesson from this? Everyone wants money, but nobody wants to count it.

This only applies to civil cases so that's the extent of our review for today. Good luck finding a more boring rule, but if you do comment below which rule you think is more boring.

RULE 706 Audit in Civil Cases - Notwithstanding any other evidence rule, the court must admit an auditor’s verified report prepared under Rule of Civil Procedure 172 and offered by a party. If a party files exceptions to the report, a party may offer evidence supporting the exceptions to contradict the report.

BORING LEGAL DISCLAIMER

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