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ASSEMBLY BILL 333 (SONG - 1965)

CHAPTER 299, STATUTES OF 1965, AB 333

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As enacted in 1965, Assembly Bill 333 established the Evidence Code, amended various sections of the Business and Professions Code, Civil Code, Code of Civil Procedure Code, Corporations Code, Government Code, Health and Safety Code, Penal Code, and Public Utilities Code, and added a few sections to the Civil Code and Code of Civil Procedure Code.  (See Exhibit #1g)  Assembly member Alfred H. Song was the lead author who introduced this measure on January 18, 1965.  (See Exhibit #1a)  Assembly Bill 333 was a major piece of legislation sponsored by the California Law Revision Commission [hereinafter referred to as “the CLRC” or “the Commission”].  (See Exhibit #6, document PE-1)  

The Assembly and Senate Committees on Judiciary considered the policy issues raised by the bill.  (See Exhibits #2 and #4)  After five amendments, four in the Assembly and one in the Senate, Assembly Bill 333 was passed by both Houses of the Legislature.  (See Exhibits #1b through #1f and #2)   Assembly Bill 333 was signed by Governor Edmund G. Brown on May 18, 1965, and enacted on that date as Chapter 299 of the Statutes of 1965.  (See Exhibits #1g and #2)

The Legislative Counsel summarized Assembly Bill 333 as follows:  “Revises, consolidates and codifies in the Evidence Code the California law of evidence.”  (See Exhibit #6, document PE-9)


In a letter to Governor Brown, Assembly member Song, the author of Assembly Bill 333, provided the following description and purpose of Assembly Bill 333: 

    AB 333 would establish a new Evidence Code in California, regulating the admission and exclusion of evidence before the California courts.  The bill represents the first comprehensive revision and restatement of the law of evidence in California since 1872.

    The bill is greatly needed to facilitate the administration of justice in our courts.  Existing statutes are fragmentary, conflicting and unclear in many instances.  Evidence Law, however, must be invoked in the midst of trials when there is no time to do extensive research to discover what the law is.  This Code will give lawyers and judges an immediate source of the Law of Evidence and will end much of the confusion and uncertainty that now exist in the California Law of Evidence.
(See Exhibit #6, document PE-1)