The business records exception under Rule 803 applies to which type of records?

• A. The business records exception
• B. Present sense impression
• C. Absence of a business record
• D. Public records

Answer: (A)

The main idea is that the business records exception covers records made or kept in the ordinary course of a business. For a document to fit, it must be a record of acts, events, conditions, opinions, or diagnoses that was created or adopted in the course of the business by someone with knowledge, and it must be kept in the regular practice of that business, typically around the time the event occurred. When these conditions are met, the document can be admitted despite hearsay concerns because it’s considered reliable due to its routine nature.

This is why the correct choice points to records that are literally business records. The other options refer to different rules: a present-sense-impression statement describes events as they are happening and is a separate hearsay exception; absence of a business record is a separate rule about proving a nonexistence of a record; and public records are a different category of exception altogether.