NC · jury_instructions
N.C.P.I.—Civil 809.122
MEDICAL MALPRACTICE - PERSONAL INJURY DAMAGES-FINAL MANDATE (PER DIEM ARGUMENT BY COUNSEL).
(Use for medical malpractice claims filed on or after 1
October 2011 when a per diem argument is made. If a
per diem argument is not made, use N.C.P.I.-Civil
809.120. For all claims filed before 1 October 2011,
use N.C.P.I.-Civil 810.20 or 810.22.)
I instruct you that your findings on this (state number) issue must
be based on the evidence and the rules of law I have given you with
respect to the measure of damages. You are not required to accept the
amount of damages suggested by the parties or their attorneys.
An attorney is allowed to suggest an amount of damages and
therefore can suggest an amount for each (specify unit(s) of time, e.g.,
day, hour or minute) of physical pain or mental suffering. However, I
instruct you that there is no fixed mathematical formula for computing
damages for physical pain or mental suffering. Furthermore, an
attorney's argument is not evidence but is merely an approach to the
damage issue which you may consider but need not adopt.1
Your award must be fair and just. You should remember that you
are not seeking to punish either party, and you are not awarding or
withholding anything on the basis of sympathy or pity.
Finally, as to this (state number) issue on which the plaintiff has
the burden of proof, if you find by the greater weight of the evidence the
amount of economic damages proximately caused by the negligence of
the defendant, then, as I have instructed you, it would be your duty to
write that amount in the blank space provided for “Economic Damages.”
If you find by the greater weight of the evidence the amount of non-economic damages proximately caused by the negligence of the
defendant, then it would be your duty to write that amount in the blank
space provided for “Non-economic Damages.” You would then write the
total of those two amounts of actual damages on the verdict sheet in the
blank space provided for “Total Damages.”
If, on the other hand, you fail to find any amount of actual
damages, then it would be your duty to write a nominal sum such as
"One Dollar" in the blank space on the issue sheet for “Total Damages.”
History
N.C.P.I.—Civil 809.122 (June 2012). Prepared by the North Carolina Conference of Superior Court Judges' Committee on Pattern Jury Instructions, assisted by the UNC School of Government; published by the School of Government.
Provenance
- Source
- sog.unc.edu
- Retrieved
- 2026-09-24
- Edition
- 2026-09-24
- Content hash
5bb54559ff71130a8e4c3b8e9f05598af22565c09ee9599711997a206214fe05
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