Evidence of furnishing, offering or promising to pay medical, hospital or similar expenses occasioned by an injury is not admissible to prove liability for the injury.
§ 2409.Payment of Medical and Similar Expenses
Chapter 40: Oklahoma Evidence Code · Not amended since adoption on record · Last verified August 3, 2026
In one sentenceMakes evidence that someone furnished, offered, or promised to pay medical, hospital, or similar expenses after an injury inadmissible to prove liability for that injury, protecting a gesture of help from being read as an admission of fault.
Full Text of § 2409
Amendment History
Laws 1978, SB 276, c. 285, § 409, eff. 10/1/1978.
Plain-English Summary
Section 2409, Oklahoma's version of Federal Rule of Evidence 409, keeps an act of kindness from becoming an admission of fault. Evidence that someone paid, offered to pay, or promised to pay medical, hospital, or similar expenses arising from an injury can't be used to prove liability for that injury.
Frequently Asked Questions
If I pay someone's medical bills after an accident, can that be used against me later?
No. Section 2409 makes evidence of furnishing, offering, or promising to pay medical, hospital, or similar expenses inadmissible to prove liability for the injury.
Does this rule also cover statements made while offering to pay medical bills?
The text of Section 2409 covers only the furnishing, offering, or promising to pay itself, unlike Section 2408, which separately excludes conduct and statements made in compromise negotiations.
Why would the law protect someone who pays another person's medical bills?
So people aren't discouraged from helping an injured person out of fear that the gesture will later be used to prove they caused the injury.
Source & verification. Section text is reproduced verbatim from
Title 12 of the Oklahoma Statutes, enacted by the Oklahoma Legislature.
Last verified August 3, 2026.
· Official source
Also known as: oklahoma payment of medical expenses evidence12 O.S. § 2409FRE 409 oklahoma equivalent