Judicial notice is a court’s acceptance of a well-known and indisputable fact without requiring the party relying on the fact to prove it. The doctrine of judicial notice is one of common sense, and is based on the theory that where a fact is well-known in the community—or its existence is easily determined from sources that cannot be reasonably questioned—it would not be a good use of judicial time and resources to require formal proof of the fact in court. A court may take judicial notice of both facts and laws.

In New Mexico, judicial notice is governed by Rule 11-201 of the New Mexico Rules of Evidence, which aligns with the Federal Rules of Evidence. This rule allows courts to take judicial notice of facts that are not subject to reasonable dispute because they are either generally known within the territorial jurisdiction of the trial court or can be accurately and readily determined from sources whose accuracy cannot reasonably be questioned. New Mexico courts can take judicial notice of both adjudicative facts and law. Adjudicative facts are those facts that are typically the subject of proof in proceedings, such as the weather on a certain day or well-known historical events. Laws include statutes, judicial decisions, and regulations of both New Mexico and the United States, as well as the laws of foreign countries. The court may take judicial notice at any stage of the proceeding, and once a court takes judicial notice of a fact, it is accepted as conclusive in the case.