FL · jury_instructions
Fla. Std. Jury Instr. (Civ.) 404.6
LEGAL CAUSE
a. Legal cause generally:
Bad faith conduct is a legal cause of [loss] [damage] [or] [harm] if it directly and in natural and continuous sequence produces or contributes substantially to producing such [loss] [damage] [or] [harm], so that it can reasonably be said that, but for the bad faith conduct, the [loss] [damage] [or] [harm] would not have occurred.
b. Concurring cause:
In order to be regarded as a legal cause of [loss] [damage] [or] [harm] bad faith conduct need not be the only cause. Bad faith conduct may be a legal cause of [loss] [damage] [or] [harm] even though it operates in combination with [the act of another] [some natural cause] [or] [some other cause] if the bad faith conduct contributes substantially to producing such [loss] [damage] [or] [harm].
c. Intervening cause:
Do not use the bracketed first sentence if this instruction is preceded by the instruction on concurring cause.*
*[In order to be regarded as a legal cause of [loss] [damage] [or] [harm], bad faith conduct need not be its only cause.] Bad faith conduct may also be a legal cause of [loss] [damage] [or] [harm] even though it operates in combination with [the act of another] [some natural cause] [or] [some other cause] occurring after the bad faith conduct occurs if [such other cause was itself reasonably foreseeable and the bad faith conduct contributes substantially to producing such [loss] [damage] [or] [harm] [or] [the resulting [loss] [damage] [or] [harm] was a reasonably foreseeable consequence of the bad faith conduct and the bad faith conduct contributes substantially to producing it].
Provenance
- Source
- floridabar.org
- Retrieved
- 2026-08-18
- Edition
- 2026-08-18
- Content hash
a03eed9b878ad422bc4e72a79dd8e7bb69ef87031e3354aa4f3bb87e2095d24e
The link goes to the issuing authority’s own document — the one we read to produce this record. Where a source publishes whole titles rather than sections, your browser may need a moment to jump to the provision.
Unofficial copy of government-published law, reproduced from official sources with full provenance. Not an official publication; verify against official sources before relying on it in a filing. Records in the 'guidance' corpus, and only that corpus, are sub-regulatory (interpretive guidelines, survey procedures) and are not binding law. Validity bounds follow each jurisdiction's declared temporalBasis.