Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Florida
what is "hearsay"? i am the plaintiff. i heard the defendant is sending a lawyer instead of personally appearing. if i say "the defendants handyman told me that the defendant said not to fix the rotting bathroom floor", is that hearsay? and if the attorney says "my client never said that.", is that hearsay? additionally, while we are under oath, i know i must tell the truth. but does that mean the attorney can tell the truth only "as he knows it?" which means if his client tells him "i never said that.", then he is technically muddying the waters with falsehoods. can we ask the judge to get the defendant on the phone and turn on the speaker. i'm afraid she is going to lie about the flooding through her lawyer without the fear of perjury. your thoughts, please?
2 Answers from Attorneys
Hearsay is an entire chapter of Evidence that is and entire semester of law school. The defendant is sending an attorney to argue the law. The attorney cannot testify. Neither of you can state what another person said, (hearsay) unless that person said something to you, or under other specific circumstances (non-hearsay) too numerous and complicated to instruct you on in this forum. If you have a lot of money at stake, you need an attorney. Your case may be getting dismissed on the pleadings because you don't know how to plead the facts or argue the law.
The answer to your first question is yes, that is hearsay. The attorney would raise that objection, the judge would throw out that testimony, and the attorney would not have to say anything else. The handyman would have to testify personally as to what was told to him by the defendant.
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