GREGORY CHANDLER-CHARACTER EVIDENCE

In trial litigation matters, there are two different uses of character evidence.  In some cases, character is itself in issue, in the sense that a person's character is an element of a claim, charge, or defense; in these cases, character evidence is necessary if an issue is to be correctly decided.  In other cases, character evidence is introduced as circumstantial evidence of conduct on a particular occasion and is generally barred, except that the defendant is given
the right to open an inquiry into character in a criminal case, special provision is made for criminal cases where the defendant claims self-defense and in cases of sexual abuse, and character evidence may be used to impeach or support the credibility of a witness.  Federal Rule of Evidence 404 only concerns the circumstantial use of character evidence, while Federal Rule of Evidence 405 is not as limited.  Federal Rule 405 deals with the proper form of character evidence, assuming that the evidence is admissible. 

One further note is that most state jurisdictions have similar uses for dealing with character evidence.  


GREGORY CHANDLER, Attorney at Law