Rule 903: Subscribing Witness's Testimony

Rule 903 addresses an old common law requirement that no longer plays a significant role in modern evidence law. At common law, when a document had a subscribing witness (a witness who signed the document to attest to its execution), that subscribing witness had to be called to testify before the document could be authenticated. Rule 903 abolishes this requirement unless the substantive law governing the document's validity requires it.

In practice, this means that documents can be authenticated through any of the methods listed in Rules 901 and 902 without needing to call anyone who witnessed the signing. The only situation where a subscribing witness must testify is when the underlying substantive law (such as a state law governing wills or certain contracts) requires attestation by a subscribing witness as a condition of the document's legal validity.

For most documents in modern litigation, Rule 903 is simply a non-issue. It exists primarily as a historical note, confirming that the Federal Rules have moved past the common law's rigid attestation requirements.