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Va. Code Ann. § 8.01-397.1

Evidence of habit or routine practice; defined (Supreme Court Rule 2:406 derived from this section)

Applied in 4 court decisions — leading case 45 Va. App. 735 - Hodges v. Commonwealth (2005)

Most recently applied in Selective Ins. Co. of Am. v. Bratton (April 2014)

2000, c. 1026.

How often courts cite this section

20052010201420
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.

A. Admissibility. 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 eye witnesses, 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. Evidence of prior conduct may be relevant to rebut evidence of habit or routine practice.

B. Habit and routine practice defined. A "habit" is a person's regular response to repeated specific situations. A "routine practice" is a regular course of conduct of a group of persons or an organization in response to repeated specific situations.

C. The provisions of this section are applicable only in civil proceedings.

Official source: Virginia Law Portal (LIS). Reproduced from public-domain Virginia statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.