CA · jury_instructions
CACI No. 517
Affirmative Defense—Patient’s Duty to Provide for the
Patient’s Own Well-Being
A patient must use reasonable care to provide for the patient’s own well-being. This includes a responsibility to [follow [a/an] [insert type of
medical practitioner]’s instructions/seek medical assistance] when a
reasonable person in the same situation would do so.
[Name of defendant] claims that [name of plaintiff]’s harm was caused, in
whole or in part, by [name of plaintiff]’s negligence in failing to [follow
[name of defendant]’s instructions/seek medical assistance]. To succeed,
[name of defendant] must prove both of the following:
1. That [name of plaintiff] did not use reasonable care in [following
[name of defendant]’s instructions/seeking medical assistance]; and
2. That [name of plaintiff]’s failure to [follow [name of defendant]’s
instructions/seek medical assistance] was a substantial factor in
causing [his/her/ nonbinary pronoun] harm.
New September 2003; Revised December 2015, May 2020
Provenance
- Source
- courts.ca.gov
- Retrieved
- 2026-08-20
- Edition
- caci-2025
- Content hash
cded514fc9d981850057ffe02bd25f20cf41b8be63cc604219000b395dcfcbbf
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