Habit evidence
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Habit evidence is a term used in the law of evidence in the United States to describe any evidence submitted for the purpose of proving that a person acted in a particular way on a particular occasion based on that person's tendency to reflexively respond to a particular situation in a particular way.[1]
Habit evidence must be distinguished from character evidence, which seeks to show that a person behaved in a particular way on a particular occasion based on that person's prior bad acts, or based on the opinion of a witness, or based on that person's reputation in the community. Such character evidence is generally inadmissible.
For example, suppose there was a bar called "Study Hall" located near a college campus. "Happy Hour Joe" is the nickname of a regular patron of this bar, and he frequents the bar every day, Monday through Friday, at approximately 5:30 p.m. on his way home from work. Joe typically has 1 or 2 beers, and then leaves. A party could introduce this evidence of habit if the party wanted to show it was more probable that Joe was at Study Hall on Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. A party could also introduce the evidence if the party wanted to show it was more probable that, on his way home Wednesday at 6 p.m., Joe had been drinking.
However, the evidence could not be introduced to show that Happy Hour Joe is an alcoholic, or that he is a careless driver. That would be character evidence.
References
Sources
- Federal Rules of Evidence
- Online Federal Evidence Review [1]