In the law of evidence habit evidence means any testimony for proving that an individual acted in a particular manner on a particular occasion due to his inherent tendency to reflexively respond to a specific situation in a particular fashion. It is like his standard routine response to a recurrent repetitive situation.
Unlike habit evidence, character evidence seeks to explain a person’s behavior in a particular manner on a particular occasion in the light of his bad antecedents or disreputation. Usually such character evidence is inadmissible.
According to Rule 406 of the Federal Rules of Evidence "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."
