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.
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.
Federal Rule of Evidence 406 states, "Evidence of the habit of a person or of the routine practice of an organization, whether corroborated or not and regardless of the presence of an eyewitness, is relevant to prove that the conduct of the person or organization on a particular occasion was in conformity with the habit or routine practice."
Famous quotes containing the words habit and/or evidence:
“I know only one person whom I could count on not to indulge herself in ... conventional falsehoods, and she has never been able, so far as I know, to keep a friend. The habit of literal truth-telling ... is self-indulgence of the worst.”
—Katharine Fullerton Gerould (1879–1944)
“All credibility, all good conscience, all evidence of truth come only from the senses.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)