Taking Judicial Notice The Acceptance of Alleged Facts As True Without Evidence

What Does It Mean When a Judge Is Taking Judicial Notice of a Fact?

The Requirement of Proving That a Fact Is True Becomes Unnecessary Where the Fact Is Notoriously Known and Uncontroversial. For Such Facts a Judge May Simply Take Judicial Notice of the Fact Without Need of Any Evidence.

Understanding the Principle Known As Taking Judicial Notice Without Evidence of Notoriously Known Truths

Water is wet, the Sun is bright, gasoline is flammable, seasons occur because the Earth is tilted, among other notoriously known facts, rarely require proof by evidence or expert testimony within a legal proceeding.  These notoriously known facts are facts for which a court may take judicial notice, meaning accept as true without evidence.

The Law

The circumstances or legal criteria required for a judge to determine that a fact may be deemed true by judicial notice rather than via some form of actual evidence was explained within, among other cases, Taylor v. Hanley Hospitality Inc., 2022 ONCA 376, wherein it was said:

As shown within the Taylor case, a court is permitted to accept a fact as true without proof, by taking judicial notice, when the fact is so well known as true that proof becomes unnecessary.

Summary Comment

The taking of judicial notice involves a court accepting certain facts as true without the need of evidentiary proof and involves things so commonly known.