Evidence: judicial notice.

Senator Umberg's proposal to modify California's judicial notice standards focuses on technical refinements to Section 452 of the Evidence Code, which governs courts' ability to recognize certain facts without formal proof.

The bill maintains the existing framework of judicial notice while implementing technical adjustments to the eight categories of matters courts may recognize. These categories encompass state and federal laws, regulations, official government acts, court records, international law, and widely accepted facts. Under the current and proposed provisions, courts retain the authority to take judicial notice of these matters when they fall outside the scope of mandatory judicial notice outlined in Section 451.

The measure requires a simple majority vote for passage and carries no fiscal impact or local program requirements. As a technical amendment, the changes aim to preserve the established judicial notice system while addressing non-substantive elements of the statutory language.