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Tenn. Code Ann. § 55-9-604

Failure to wear safety belt — Contributory negligence — Evidence

Applied in 6 court decisions — leading case Lowe v. Estate Motors Ltd. (1987)

Most recently applied in 521 F. Supp. 2d 707 - England v. Suzuki Motor Corp. (October 2007)

Acts 1986, ch. 866, § 5; 1994, ch. 661, § 3; 2004, ch. 893, § 6.

How often courts cite this section

198719902000200710
citing decisions per year

Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.

(1) The failure to wear a safety belt or receipt of a citation or warrant for arrest for failure to wear a safety belt shall not be admissible into evidence in a civil action; provided, that evidence of a failure to wear a safety belt or receipt of a citation or warrant for arrest for failure to wear a safety belt, as required by this chapter, may be admitted in a civil action as to the causal relationship between noncompliance and the injuries alleged, if the following conditions have been satisfied: The plaintiff has filed a products liability claim;

(2) The defendant alleging noncompliance with this chapter shall raise this defense in its answer or timely amendment thereto in accordance with the rules of civil procedure; and

(3) Each defendant seeking to offer evidence alleging noncompliance with this chapter has the burden of proving noncompliance with this chapter, that compliance with this chapter would have reduced injuries and the extent of the reduction of the injuries.

(4) Upon request of any party, the trial judge shall hold a hearing out of the presence of the jury as to the admissibility of the evidence in accordance with this section and the Tennessee Rules of Evidence.

Current official text: Tennessee Code (LexisNexis). Digitized from the UniCourt Code Improvement Commission public-domain capture. Reproduced from public-domain Tennessee statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.