New Jury Instruction for "Professional Negligence" - March 29, 2005

There is a new jury instruction that defines the duty of care owed by defendants in medical malpractice cases. It is now defined as follows: "Professional negligence" by a [doctor, nurse, etc.] is the failure to do something that a reasonably careful [doctor, nurse, etc.] would do, or the doing of something that a reasonably careful [doctor, nurse, etc.] practicing in the same or similar localities would not do, under circumstances similar to those shown by the evidence.Bottom Line: The former instruction defined standard of care in terms of a "reasonably well-qualified" professional, while this instruction uses the language "reasonably careful".Thoughts: This instruction may initially cause some problems for defense experts as well as defendants that are not warned of this change and prepared accordingly. Ultimately, it seems the instruction will be simpler and more understandable to a jury.