Opened-the-Door Doctrine

This covers a scenario where this happens: Party A asks for certain evidence to be admitted. Party B objects, and the judge sustains their objection. Party B then, as part of their case in the hearing, discusses the evidence that was not admitted. Party A can then ask the Court to admit the evidence it previously excluded because Party B has now “opened the door” by discussing it. This happened in one case involing State 48 attorneys. The parties had reached an agreement in Court on a certain issue. That agreement was thrown out by the Court of Appeals over a technicality. At the subsequent retrial, our side moved to admit the former agreement, opposing counsel objected, and the Court sustained. Later, for whatever reason, opposing counsel asked his client about the Agreement. At the end of the testimony, the judge stated that the evidence of the agreement was coming in. When opposing counsel objected, the judge shook her head and said, you opened the door. That evidence led to a very significant victory for our client.