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 eyewitnesses, is relevant to prove that the conduct of the person or organization on a particular occasion was in conformity with such habit or routine practice.
(Code 1981, §24-4-406, enacted by Ga. L. 2011, p. 99, § 2/HB 24.)
Cross references.- Habit; routine practice, Fed. R. Evid. 406.
JUDICIAL DECISIONS
Editor's notes.
- In light of the similarity of the statutory provisions, decisions under former O.C.G.A. § 24-2-2 are included in the annotations for this Code section.
Habit and customs.
- Witness may testify as to the witness's fixed and uniform habit but not as to the habit and customs of another, when the actor is available to testify personally. Feinberg v. Durga, 189 Ga. App. 733, 377 S.E.2d 33 (1988) (decided under former O.C.G.A. § 24-2-2).
Not habit evidence.
- Testimony about the defendant's prior driving on the curve in question was not habit evidence. Evans-Glodowski v. State, 335 Ga. App. 484, 781 S.E.2d 591 (2016).
Business's routine practice may be admissible.
- In a dispute over a storage facility's storage of a customer's seed, in which the facility sought to bind the customer to limitations printed on the reverse of the facility's warehouse receipts, the trial court erred by concluding that evidence that the facility routinely mailed warehouse receipts to the facility's customers was sufficient to bind the customer as a matter of law; because the customer denied receiving the receipts, the customer's assent was a question for the jury. Turfgrass Group v. Ga. Cold Storage Co., 346 Ga. App. 659, 816 S.E.2d 716 (2018).