diff --git a/rules/S1481/shell/rule.adoc b/rules/S1481/shell/rule.adoc
index 05889f97639..d1e7fe99de9 100644
--- a/rules/S1481/shell/rule.adoc
+++ b/rules/S1481/shell/rule.adoc
@@ -1,5 +1,17 @@
 include::../rationale.adoc[]
 
+=== Special Cases
+
+Variables passed by reference to functions whose name contains `by_ref` are considered used. In bash, some functions accept variable names as plain word arguments (not `$var` expansions) and modify them indirectly. When such a function name contains `by_ref`, word arguments matching declared variable names are counted as legitimate usages.
+
+[source,bash]
+----
+function process_data() {
+  local result status  # Compliant: result and status are used by reference
+  get_values_by_ref result status
+}
+----
+
 include::../how-to-fix-it.adoc[]
 
 === Code examples