VA · jury_instructions
Va. Model Jury Instr. Civ. No. 35.010
Statewide or Local Standard of Care for Health Care Providers
A doctor has a duty to use the degree of skill and diligence in the care and treatment of his
patient that a reasonably prudent doctor in the same field of practice or specialty in Virginia would
have used under the circumstances of this case. This is referred to as the standard of care.
[However, if you find that the [doctor; patient] has proved by the greater weight of the evidence that
the health care services, health care facilities, and customary practices in the locality where the
treatment took place make a local standard of care more appropriate than a statewide standard, then the
local standard applies and a doctor has a duty to use the degree of skill and diligence in the care and
treatment of his patient that a reasonably prudent doctor in the same field of practice or specialty in [the
same; a similar] locality would have used under the circumstances of this case.]
If a doctor fails to perform this duty [under the standard of care you find applicable], then he is
negligent.
History
Virginia Model Jury Instructions – Civil, Release 26, April 2026. The unannotated set, posted by the Supreme Court of Virginia at vacourts.gov; the book states that it is made available with the permission of the publisher, Matthew Bender & Company, Inc.
Provenance
- Source
- vacourts.gov
- Retrieved
- 2026-10-11
- Edition
- civ-2026-04-01
- Content hash
25e202d8123ac62d33a62c0ff2ae43e408e0e48cdb477cbf0573e8f92514ecfa
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