CALIFORNIA EVIDENCE: CIVIL AND CRIMINAL
...Hearsay Except. Requiring Unavail
......Unavailability Examples
.........Infirmity
............Mental Infirmity: In General
4 Cards On This Topic:

Statutory definition of unavailability includes mental illness or infirmity of witness.

As expert testimony supported finding that sexually abused minor victim would suffer substantial trauma if made to testify in 2d trial, court properly found him "unavailable" under EC §240(a)(3).

Physician's testimony not required to support finding of medical unavailability.

Illness or infirmity must be of comparative severity so as to render witness' testifying relatively impossible and not merely inconvenient. Trial court has discretion on unavailability ruling.