§ 81.008.Admission of Evidence

A rape shield provision for the civil action.

Evidence of the plaintiff's sexual history and reputation is not admissible unless: the plaintiff claims damage to sexual functioning; or the defendant requests a hearing before trial and makes an offer of proof of relevancy, and the court finds the evidence relevant and that its probative value outweighs its prejudicial effect.

The first exception is the plaintiff's own doing. A claim of damage to sexual functioning puts the subject in issue, and the defendant may meet it.

The second requires the defendant to move first, in writing, before trial, with an offer of proof — no exploration in front of a jury and no attempt to raise it mid-trial.

Subsection (b) confines what comes in even then. The court may admit only specific information or examples of conduct it determines relevant, and the court's order shall detail what is admissible, with no other such evidence introduced.

An order listing precisely what may be asked about, and forbidding anything else, is a substantially tighter control than a general ruling on admissibility.

The provision addresses a predictable defence tactic: making the plaintiff's private life the subject of the trial to discourage the claim from being brought at all.