Federal Rules of Evidence - Rule 409: Offers to Pay Medical Expenses

Rules 407-411 are policy rules that address specific reasons for admitting or excluding evidence.
These rules determine if a piece of evidence, despite being relevant, should be excluded based on policy considerations (Rule 403).

Rule 409 states that evidence of offering to pay, promising to pay, or actually paying medical expenses cannot be admitted at trial to prove liability.
This rule applies to medical expenses, hospital bills, and similar expenses.

Bad Purpose (Inadmissible): Proving liability.
- The rule seeks to prevent the inference that offering to pay medical expenses implies fault or admission of guilt.
Good Purpose (Admissible): Any purpose other than proving liability.

An injured proponent may attempt to introduce evidence that the opposing party offered to pay medical expenses to suggest the opposing party is at fault and liable.
The proponent believes such evidence makes it more likely that the opposing party did something wrong.

The opponent must object if the proponent attempts to introduce evidence of offering, promising, or paying medical expenses to prove liability.
The objection should be based on Rule 409.

The proponent can argue that the evidence is offered for a purpose other than proving liability.
Examples of acceptable purposes:
- Proving ownership of the area where the accident occurred when ownership is denied.
- Showing an injury occurred when the injury itself is being denied.

Policy rules are often considered with Rule 403, which involves balancing probative value against the risk of unfair prejudice, confusion, or delay.
Evidence of an offer to pay medical expenses may have low probative value in proving liability.

Following an accident, the person at fault immediately offers to pay the injured party's medical bills.
At trial, the injured party's lawyer tries to introduce the offer to pay as evidence that the at-fault party knew they were liable.
The defense lawyer objects under Rule 409, arguing the evidence is being used to prove liability.
The judge would likely sustain the objection unless the injured party's lawyer can convince the court that the evidence is being introduced for a different, permissible purpose (e.g., to establish that an injury occurred when the defense claims there was no injury).