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 XI - Demonstrative and Scientific Evidence › Rule 82 - Experiments and scientific evidence

(A) The admissibility of evidence resulting from an experiment or test shall be determined by the court pursuant to the provisions of Rule 19. If the experiment is intended to show that certain facts occurred in a specific manner, the proponent shall persuade the court that the experiment was carried out under circumstances identical or similar to those existing at the moment said facts occurred.
(B) Upon passing on the probative value of scientific evidence, the court shall give weight to the reliability or certainty that science confers to the test in question. This can be determined by expert evidence or through judicial knowledge pursuant to the provisions of Rule 11.
(C) In any action in which paternity is a pertinent fact, the court may, on its own initiative or upon an opportune motion presented by a party, shall order the mother, son or daughter and the putative or alleged biological father to undergo genetic tests. In case the putative father is deceased, the parents, children, siblings, and grandchildren of the putative father may be submitted to genetic testing, following an order of preference in accordance with the degree of consanguinity of the relative with the putative father. All expenses related to the requested test shall be defrayed by the petitioner in those cases in which the test produces a negative result. In the event that the result of the test is positive, the expenses shall be covered by the respondent. If the party bound to pay the cost of the test is a beneficiary of the Public Assistance Program of the Department of the Family under the Category of Temporary Help to Needy Families or the Assistance to Medically-Indigent Families (Medicaid) Program, its cost shall be charged to that part of the General Fund of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico appropriated to the Minors Support Program of the Department of the Family.
Paternity shall be disputably presumed in those cases in which a putative father or his parents, children, siblings or grandchildren refuse to undergo the genetic test ordered by the court. The tests shall be performed by duly-qualified experts appointed by the court. Prior to admitting said tests as evidence, the court shall determine and enter into the record that the tests have been performed following the strictest standards required for this type of analysis.
(D) If the court determines from the findings and conclusions of the experts, as revealed by the evidence based on the tests, the alleged father is not the father of the child, the fact of paternity shall be resolved accordingly. If the experts cannot agree on their findings and conclusions, the fact of paternity shall be resolved according to all the evidence presented. If the experts conclude that the blood tests show the possibility of the paternity of the alleged father, the admissibility of this evidence shall be at the discretion of the court depending on whether the blood type is a common or an uncommon one.
History —Amended on July 21, 1988, No. 121, p. 513; July 16, 1990, No. 10, p. 67; Aug. 30, 1991, No. 79, § 2; Aug. 11, 2000, No. 147, § 1.