406 Habit; routine practice

If someone has a habit of doing something the same way every time, or a business always follows the same routine, that pattern can be used as evidence in court. The idea is that if a person or company always acts a certain way, they probably acted that way this time too.

This kind of evidence counts even if no one saw what happened on the specific occasion in question. It also counts even if there's no other proof backing it up. For example, if a business always mails out a confirmation letter after every sale, proof of that routine can help show the letter was sent in a specific case, even without a witness who remembers mailing it.

The key difference between this rule and character evidence is that habit evidence deals with a specific, repeated response to a specific situation, not a general personality trait. A person's habit of always locking their car door, or a company's routine of always checking IDs before serving alcohol, are examples of the kind of specific behavior this rule covers.