§ 786 Witness Character Evidence Limits

• •You can't use someone's personality traits to say they are lying or telling the truth in court.
• •Only their honesty or dishonesty can be talked about to judge if they are telling the truth.
• •Other things about them, like being shy or loud, don't matter for deciding if they are truthful.

A person is on trial, and a witness says they saw the person steal something. The lawyer tries to say the witness is mean, so they can't be trusted.

The judge won't allow this because being mean doesn't prove the witness is lying. Only if the witness has a history of lying can it be used to question their truthfulness.