Maryland Rule 5-701. Opinion Testimony by Lay Witnesses
If the witness is not testifying
as an expert, the witness's testimony in the form of opinions
or inferences is limited to those opinions or inferences which
are (1) rationally based on the perception of the witness and
(2) helpful to a clear understanding of the witness's testimony
or the determination of a fact in issue.
This Maryland Rule of Evidence
governs when Maryland attorneys can seek lay opinion from witnesses.
There are some opinions reasonable lay people can give without
specialized expert information. For example, if a lawyer in Maryland
in a car accident case solicits testimony from a witness regarding
the slippery conditions of the road, the lawyer need not first
qualify the expert as a physicist with opinions on the coefficients
of friction for ice. Reasonable people know when a roadway is
slippery and can testify accordingly. This has been a fundamental
tenet of Maryland law for over 120 years. See Baltimore & Liberty v. Cassell, 66 Md. 419, 431. ("Any human being who
has the use of his organs of vision, and is possessed of an intellect
above the grade of idiocy can tell when a particular place in
a road is dangerous or otherwise, and is therefore competent to
testify as to its condition; the value of [this] testimony being
for consideration of the jury.")
It is a little trickier trying to determine where the line is in Maryland between expert and non-expert opinion
testimony. This line too has been long understood to be a difficult
one to find. In analyzing the admissibility of lay opinion testimony,
writing for the Maryland Court of Appeals over 100 years ago, found that
that "it is sometimes difficult to draw the line between
what is and is not admissible from a non-expert, when his opinion
is offered in evidence." Tucker v. State, 89. Md. 471, 477
(1899). Maryland Rule 5-701, which has now been the law of Maryland
for over eleven years, attempts to simplify Maryland law down
on lay testimony to two conjunctive facts: (1) a lay opinion must
be based on the perceptions of the witness and (2) must be helpful
to the trier of facts.