§ 1340 [Published Compilations Relied Upon in Business]

Published reference materials that businesses regularly trust and use can be admitted as evidence in court, even though they contain statements made outside of court.

For example, if a business routinely relies on a published price list, industry directory, or official register to do its work, information from that source can be shown to a judge or jury. The key is that the material must be something businesses actually use and depend on in their everyday work, not just something pulled together for a lawsuit.

This rule only covers facts stated in these publications, not opinions. So a published guide listing the standard price of used cars could come in as evidence, but a published opinion about whether a car was fairly priced would not be covered by this rule.