The Business Records Exception to Hearsay in California (Evidence Code Section 1271)

Last updated: November 2026. Reviewed by Pavel Kolmogorov, California business litigation attorney (State Bar No. 321018).

The business records exception is the California rule that lets a writing made in the regular course of a business come into evidence to prove the events it records. A court will not accept five years of invoices because they exist. Under Evidence Code section 1271, a custodian or other qualified witness must explain how the records were made. They must have been made near the time of each transaction, by a method that shows they can be trusted. Kolmogorov Law, P.C. is a business litigation firm in Irvine.

Call (909) 235-6116 or contact us online to discuss how your company's records will be proved at trial.

Why records do not speak for themselves

Hearsay is evidence of a statement made other than by a witness while testifying at the hearing, offered to prove the truth of what it states. Unless the law provides an exception, it is inadmissible. (Evid. Code, § 1200, subds. (a), (b).)

An invoice is a statement. It says goods were shipped on a date for a price. Offered to prove exactly that, it is hearsay. The same is true of ledgers, delivery logs, and account statements.

The exception exists so that a party need not call every employee who touched a transaction. Our page on how to prove a breach of contract covers the wider proof.

The four requirements of Evidence Code section 1271

A writing made as a record of an act, condition, or event is not barred by the hearsay rule, when offered to prove that act, condition, or event, if four things are shown. (Evid. Code, § 1271.)

The writing was made in the regular course of a business.
It was made at or near the time of the act, condition, or event.
The custodian or another qualified witness testifies to its identity and the mode of its preparation.
The sources of information and the method and time of preparation indicate that it is trustworthy.

"A business" is defined broadly. It includes every kind of business, governmental activity, profession, occupation, calling, or operation of institutions, whether or not carried on for profit. (Evid. Code, § 1270.)

A ledger kept daily by the accounting staff usually clears all four. A spreadsheet assembled for the lawsuit, months after the events, may fail the first two.

Who can be the qualified witness

The witness need not be the person who typed the entry, and need not be the formal custodian. The Court of Appeal has said that any qualified witness who knows the documents may lay the foundation. The witness need not have attended every transaction and needs only to be familiar with the procedures followed. What matters is that the person who originally supplied the information had firsthand knowledge. (Jazayeri v. Mao (2009) 174 Cal.App.4th 301, 322, 324.)

A controller, a bookkeeper, or an operations manager can usually do it. That person should be able to say who enters the data, from what source, and when. The trial judge has discretion on trustworthiness, so a witness who has only read the file invites an objection.

Two situations cause trouble. The first is a set of records inherited from a prior owner or an old system that nobody at the company can describe. The second is a document another company prepared and sent to you. Your witness can say it was received and filed, but usually cannot say how it was prepared.

Why an email is not automatically a business record

Email is written in the course of business, but that is not the test. The question is whether the particular message is a record of an event, made at or near the time, as a regular practice, from a reliable source.

An automated order confirmation generated by the sales system is a strong candidate. A manager's email three weeks later, recounting what a customer supposedly said on a call, is not.

Other routes are available for email.

A statement offered against the party who made it is not made inadmissible by the hearsay rule. (Evid. Code, § 1220.) Emails written by the opposing party usually come in this way.
A message offered for something other than its truth, such as to show that a party received notice, falls outside the definition of hearsay.

Records obtained by subpoena: the affidavit route

Bank statements and carrier records may belong to companies that are not parties to the case. The Evidence Code lets them come in without a live witness.

When a subpoena for records is served on a business that is neither a party nor the place where the claim arose, the custodian may comply by delivering a true, legible, and durable copy with an affidavit. (Evid. Code, § 1560, subd. (b).) The affidavit states that the records were prepared by the personnel of the business in the ordinary course, at or near the time of the event. It also describes how they were prepared. (Evid. Code, § 1561, subd. (a).)

If the originals would have been admissible had the custodian testified to those matters, and section 1271 is satisfied, the copies are admissible. The affidavit is itself evidence of what it states. Those statements are presumed true, a presumption that affects the burden of producing evidence. (Evid. Code, § 1562.)

The shortcut is written for nonparty businesses, so a party's own records still need a witness in most cases. Our page on responding to a subpoena for business records covers the custodian's side.

Preparing your records, or challenging the other side's

If your company is offering the records, for example on an open book account claim, we identify the witness early and match each exhibit to the four requirements.

If the other side is offering records against you, test each requirement. When was the entry made? Who supplied the information? Was the document created for the dispute? An objection can be raised before trial through a motion in limine.

What to bring to the first meeting

The records you expect to rely on, in their native format where possible.
The name and role of each person who creates, enters, or reviews those records.
The pleadings and any trial or discovery deadlines.

Frequently asked questions

We have five years of invoices proving the debt. Will the court just accept our records as evidence?

Not automatically. In a California court an invoice offered to prove a sale is hearsay unless an exception applies. Under Evidence Code section 1271, a custodian or other qualified witness must testify to how the invoices were prepared. The court must also find that they were made in the regular course of business, near the time of each sale, by a trustworthy method. Invoices kept that way are admissible.

What is the business records exception in California?

It is the hearsay exception in Evidence Code section 1271. In a California court, a writing made as a record of an act, condition, or event may be admitted to prove that event. It must have been made in the regular course of a business, at or near the time. A qualified witness must explain its identity and preparation, and its sources and method must indicate trustworthiness.

Who is a qualified witness under Evidence Code 1271?

California courts do not require the record's author or the official custodian. A qualified witness is someone who knows how the business creates and keeps the records and can describe that procedure, such as a controller or office manager. The witness does not need personal knowledge of each transaction, provided the person who originally supplied the information had firsthand knowledge of it.

Can I use the other side's emails against them in a California business trial, or are they hearsay?

Usually you can. Under Evidence Code section 1220, a statement is not made inadmissible by the hearsay rule when it is offered against the party who made it. In a California case that rule, more than the business records exception, is the path for an opponent's emails. When the opponent is a company, whether a particular employee's email counts as the company's statement can itself be contested.

Can the absence of a record prove that something did not happen?

Yes, under Evidence Code section 1272. A California court may admit evidence that a business's records contain no entry of a payment, delivery, or other event to prove it did not occur. The business must show that it regularly recorded all such events at or near the time and preserved the records. Its methods must also make the missing entry a trustworthy indication.

Talk to a California civil litigation attorney

If a dispute will turn on your company's records, or on records offered against it, call (909) 235-6116 or contact us online. Kolmogorov Law, P.C. is located in Irvine, California.

This page provides general information about California law and is not legal advice. Outcomes depend on the records, the facts, and the court.