Home › Tennessee › Rules of Evidence › Rule 601

Rule 601 General rule of competency

Article VI. Witnesses

← Previous Rule 502: Limitations on Waiver of Privileged Information or Work Product Next → Rule 602: Lack of personal knowledge

Rule Text

Every person is presumed competent to be a witness except as otherwise provided in these rules or by statute.

Amendment history: [As amended by order entered January 24, 1992, effective July 1, 1992.]

Plain-English Summary (for reference only — not a substitute for the rule text above)

This summary is not the rule. The rule text controls.

Anyone can testify as a witness in court. The law assumes people are capable of being witnesses unless a specific rule or law says otherwise.

This means there's no automatic ban on someone testifying because of their age, mental state, or background. A young child, someone with a disability, or a person with a criminal record can still take the stand. Courts start from the assumption that a person is fit to testify, and it takes a specific legal reason to say otherwise.

If someone wants to argue that a witness should not be allowed to testify, they need to point to another rule or law that creates an exception. Without that, the default answer is yes, the person can testify.

Committee Notes

Advisory Commission Comments.

This language is similar to T.C.A. § 24-1-101 [repealed], first sentence.

Virtually all witnesses may be permitted to testify: children, mentally incompetent persons, convicted felons. Rules 602 and 603 should be read in connection with this rule, however, because any witness must swear or affirm to tell the truth and must have personal knowledge of that truth. The common law rebuttably presumed children under fourteen incompetent, Ball v. State, 188 Tenn. 255, 219 S.W.2d 166 (1949), but the proposed rule is contra. See also T.C.A. § 24-1-101 [repealed], second sentence, making children under age thirteen competent in sexual offense prosecutions.

The most important statute referenced by the rule is the Dead Man Statute, T.C.A. § 24-1-203. It applies generally to prevent parties from testifying to transactions with a deceased person in actions by or against estates. While the statute occasionally causes proof problems, the rule leaves it intact. See also T.C.A. § 24-1-202 [repealed] on incompetents' estates.

Advisory Commission Comments [1992].

The amendment removes the earlier language requiring "of sufficient capacity to understand the obligation of an oath or affirmation"and establishes a rebuttable presumption of competency. Note, however, that Rule 602 requires lay witnesses to have personal knowledge of matters, and Rule 603 requires all witnesses to swear or affirm they will tell the truth.

← Previous Rule 502: Limitations on Waiver of Privileged Information or Work Product Next → Rule 602: Lack of personal knowledge

This Rule Set

View All Tenn. R. Evid. Rules

Last updated: August 2026

Report an error