Posted: September 9, 2025
Civil Jury Instructions – Past Medical Expenses – Comment Period Expires Oct. 24, 2025
The following new instruction has been published:
Please reference the instruction(s) in your comments. Although the comment period runs through October 24, 2025, the instructions are ready for use. The Model Civil Jury Instructions Committee will consider all comments made during the comment period and may revise the instructions as appropriate. To view all MUJI Civil instructions please visit the MUJI website – here.
The Judicial Council also encourages judges and practitioners to continuously share their experiences using any of the published instructions with the Model Civil Jury Instructions Committee. To view the Committee’s work please visit the MUJI Civil Committee website – here.
This is a terrible instruction. The Jury is the fact finder and the judge should not usurp that role for past medical expenses. This unduly restricts Plaintiffs in medical malpractice cases.
This instruction may be premature. Constitutional challenges have been raised to the statutory basis of this instruction, in particular, Utah Code Section 78B-3-405.5(2), with at least some success in the district courts to date. See Osborne v Cottam, Case No. 200906275, Third District Court, State of Utah, before the Honorable J. Matthew Bates, Order Denying Motion to Preclude Evidence of Economic Damages, entered on September 24, 2025 (finding Section 78B-3-405.5(2) violates Art. VIII Section 4 of the Utah Constitution regarding separation of powers).
If the proposed instruction is published, it should include a footnote disclosing that at least some courts have declined to enforce the statute as unconstitutional.