Previously, evidence of a plaintiff’s failure to buckle up could not be used as evidence of contributory evidence. Now it can. Potentially a big deal. There is an excellent analysis on the Carrington Carroll blog:

Under the Texas Supreme Court’s decisions in Kerby v. ACC and Carnation Co. v. Wong, evidence of a plaintiff’s failure to fasten his or her seat belt has been inadmissible in Texas personal injury cases for more than 40 years. A unanimous Supreme Court has now overruled Kerby and Carnation, holding that “relevant evidence of use or nonuse of seat belts, and relevant evidence of a plaintiff’s pre-occurrence, injury-causing conduct generally, is admissible for the purpose of apportioning responsibility under [Texas’s current] proportionate-responsibility statute, provided that the plaintiff’s conduct caused or was a cause of his damages.”

via Sua Sponte – A Dallas Appellate Blog by Carrington Coleman: UNANIMOUS TEXAS SUPREME COURT BUCKLES DOWN ON BUCKLING UP.

Discussing Nabors Well Services, Ltd. v. Romero
Supreme Court of Texas, No. 13-0136 (February 13, 2015)

(on Lexis: Nabors Well Servs. v. Romero, 2015 Tex. LEXIS 142 (Tex. Feb. 13, 2015))

(on Justia http://law.justia.com/cases/texas/eighth-court-of-appeals/2013/08-09-00319-cv.html)

Also discussed in the SCOTXBLOG which tracks articles about the case.