2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE THIRTY-TWO Appendix (§§ 1 — 39.4) › Appendix IV - Rules of Evidence for the General Court of Justice, 1979 › Chapter VIII - Hearsay › Rule 65 - Exceptions to the hearsay rule even though the declarant is available as witness

The following are not excluded by the hearsay rule, even though the declarant is available as a witness:
(A) Present sense impression. — A statement relating, describing or explaining an act, condition or event perceived by the declarant and made while the declarant was perceiving the act, condition or event, or immediately thereafter.
(B) Spontaneous excited utterance. — A statement made by the declarant while under the stress of excitement caused by the perception of an act, event or condition, and the statement refers to said act, event or condition.
(C) Mental, physical or emotional condition. — A statement of the declarant’s then existing state of mind, emotion, sensation or physical condition including a statement on the intent, plan, motive, design, mental or emotional feeling, pain and bodily health, but not including a statement of memory or belief to prove the fact remembered or believed unless it relates to the execution, revocation, identification or terms of the declarant’s will.
(D) Diagnosis or medical treatment. — A statement made for purposes of medical diagnosis or treatment, describing medical history or past or present symptoms, pain or sensations, insofar as reasonably pertinent to diagnosis or treatment.
(E) Recorded recollection. — A statement contained in a writing or recording concerning a matter about which the witness once had knowledge but now has insufficient recollection to enable him to testify accurately, if the writing or recording was made or adopted by the witness when the matter was fresh in his memory. If admitted, the writing or recording shall be read, but shall not be received as an exhibit unless offered by the adverse party.
(F) Records of business or activity. — A writing made as a record of an act, condition or event, if made during the course of a regularly conducted business activity, at or near the time of the act, condition or event, and the custodian of said writing, or another witness, testifies as to the identity and mode of its preparation, if the sources of information, method and time of preparation are such as to indicate its trustworthiness. The term “business” includes business, a government activity, profession, occupation, calling or operation of institutions, whether or not conducted for profit.
(G) Absence of entry in business records. — Evidence of the absence from the records of a business of an entry of an alleged act, condition or event, when it is offered to prove the nonoccurrence of the act or event, or the nonexistence of the condition, if it was the regular course of the business to make records of all such acts, conditions or events at or near the time of the act, condition or event and to preserve them, if the sources of information and the method and time of preparation of the business records were such that the absence from the record is a trustworthy indication that the act or event did not occur or the condition did not exist.
(H) Public records and reports. — Evidence of a writing made as a record or report of an act, condition or event, when it is offered to prove the act, condition or event, if the writing was made at or near the time of the act, condition or event, by and within the scope of duty of a public officer, if the sources of information and the method and time of preparation were such as to indicate its trustworthiness.
(I) Records of vital statistics. — A writing made as a record of a birth, fetal death, death or marriage, if the maker was required by law to file it in a specific public office, and the writing was made and filed pursuant to requirements of law.
(J) Absence of public record. — A writing made by the official custodian of the records of a public office, stating that diligent search failed to disclose a specific record, if offered to prove the absence of said record in that office.
(K) Records of religious organizations. — Statements of births, marriages, divorces, deaths, legitimacy, ancestry, race, relationship by blood or marriage or other similar facts of personal or family history contained in a regularly kept record of a church or other religious organization.
(L) Marriage, baptismal and similar certificates. — A statement concerning the birth, marriage, death, race, ancestry, relationship by blood or marriage or other similar fact of the family history of a person, if the statement is contained in a certificate that the maker performed a marriage or other ceremony or administered a sacrament, if the person who performed the ceremony was a person authorized by law or by the rules and regulations of a religious organization to perform the acts certified, and purporting to have been issued by the maker at the time and place of the ceremony or sacrament, or within a reasonable time thereafter.
(M) Family records. — Evidence of entries in family Bibles, or other books or charts, engravings on rings, inscriptions on family portraits, engravings on urns, crypts or tombstones, or the like, when offered to establish the birth, marriage, divorce, death, legitimacy, race, ancestry, relationship by blood or marriage or other similar fact of the family history of a member of a family.
(N) Official records affecting an interest in property. — Evidence of the official record of a document affecting a right or interest in real or personal property as proof of the content of the original document and its execution, including the delivery by each person by whom its purports to have been executed, if the record is an official record of a public office and the recording of that document in said office is authorized by law.
(O) Statements in documents affecting an interest in property. — A statement contained in a document affecting a right or interest in real or personal property, if the matter stated was relevant to the purpose of the document, provided that the dealings with the property since the statement was made have not been inconsistent with the truth of the statement.
(P) Statements in ancient documents. — Statements contained in a writing more than twenty (20) years old if the authenticity of the writing has been established.
(Q) Market lists and other compilations. — A statement contained in a tabulation, list, directory, register or other compilation, if generally such compilation is used and relied upon as exact in the course of the pertinent activity or occupation.
(R) Learned treatises. — Statements contained in a treaty, periodical, pamphlet or other similar publication, on the subject of history, medicine or other science or art, if it is established, through judicial notice or expert testimony, that the publication is a reliable authority on the matter.
(S) Reputation among the family concerning personal or family history. — Evidence of reputation among members of a family if such reputation concerns the birth, marriage, adoption, divorce, death, legitimacy, race, ancestry, relationship by blood or marriage or other similar fact of the family or personal history of a member of the family by blood or marriage.
(T) Reputation concerning boundaries; general history, or personal or family history. — Evidence of reputation in the community if the reputation concerns:
(1) Boundaries of lands or customs affecting lands in the community, if the reputation arose before the controversy;
(2) an event of general history of the community, if the event was notorious or important to the community;
(3) the birth, marriage, divorce, death, legitimacy, race, ancestry or relationship by blood or marriage, or other similar fact of the personal or family history of a person who resided in the community at the time the reputation arose.
(U) Reputation as to character. — Evidence of a person’s reputation in the community in which he resides, or in a group with which he associates, regarding the character or a specific character trait of such person.
(V) Judgment of previous conviction. — Evidence of a final judgment, entered after a trial or a plea of guilty, adjudging a person guilty of a felony, offered to prove any fact essential to sustain the judgment of conviction. The pendency of an appeal shall not affect admissibility under this rule, although the fact that the judgment of conviction is not yet final may be brought before the court’s consideration. This rule does not permit the Government in a criminal prosecution to offer as evidence the judgment of conviction of a person other than the accused, except for the purpose of impeaching a witness.
(W) Other exceptions. — A statement having sufficient circumstantial guarantees of trustworthiness, if it is determined that:
(1) The statement is more probative on the point for which it is offered than any other evidence which the proponent can procure through reasonable efforts.
(2) The proponent notified the adverse party sufficiently in advance his intention to offer the statement in evidence, notifying the latter on the statement’s particulars, including the name and address of the declarant.