Early nineteenth-century litigants were barred from testifying in their own lawsuits.

Evidence

There were also complicated rules about witnesses. In 1800, husbands and wives could testify neither for nor against each other. No person could testify as a witness if he had a financial stake in the outcome of the case. This meant that neither the plaintiff nor the defendant, in most cases, could testify on their own behalf; their mouths were shut in their very own lawsuits. A person injured in a train accident would find it hard, for example, to sue the railroad, if the victim had no right to tell her story. During the period, some fresh restrictions on evidence were added. The doctor-​patient privilege, for example, prevents a doctor from giving medical testimony without his patient’s consent. A New York law of 1828, it seems, was the first appearance of this privilege. Missouri passed a similar law in 1835. — Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law, 843

Categorization

• CANDY: That a person literally could not testify in their own lawsuit is a striking, easily told historical fact about American law.