VA · jury_instructions
Va. Model Jury Instr. Civ. No. 37.010
Liability Issues (Public Figure/Not Defamatory Per Se or Private Figure/Substantial Danger to Plaintiff’s Reputation Not Apparent)
Your verdict must be based on the facts as you find them and on the law contained in all of
these instructions.
The issues in this case are:
(1) Did the defendant make the following statement: (words of statement)?
(2) Is the statement about the plaintiff?
(3) Was the statement [heard; seen] by someone other than the plaintiff?
(4) Is the statement false?
(5) Did the defendant make the statement knowing it to be false or did the defendant make it so
recklessly as to amount to a willful disregard for the truth, that is, with a high degree of awareness
that the statement was probably false?
(6) Did the statement tend to so harm the reputation of the plaintiff as to lower him in the
estimation of the community, to deter others from associating or dealing with him, or make the
plaintiff seem repulsive, infamous, or ridiculous?
(7) Was the plaintiff damaged as a result of the statement?
(8) If the plaintiff is entitled to recover, what is the amount of plaintiff’s damages?
On these issues the plaintiff has the burden of proof.
Your decisions on these issues must be governed by the instructions that follow.
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
7cfe4108e4022041a889a2edf0ba5af3be522cfd444387a6f1dd9a1346df558e
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