The Ugly, The Bad And The Good - The Florida Supreme Court Finally Takes Action To Implement New Standard Jury Instructions For Products Liability

On March 26, 2015, the Supreme Court of Florida authorized proposed changes to the standard jury instructions pertaining to product liability cases. See In Re: Standard Jury Instructions in Civil Cases — Report No. 13-01 (Products Liability), No. SC13-683, 2015 WL 1400770 (Fla. Mar. 26, 2015). The new instructions will serve as the standard or model for all products liability cases tried under Florida law from the date of the opinion.

As a matter of historical background, in 2006 (approximately 9 years ago), The Committee on Standard Jury Instructions in Civil Cases began the endeavor of revamping and retooling the model instructions for all civil lawsuits. In 2010, the first set of revised instructions rolled out and product liability instructions were completely omitted. Then in 2012, the Florida Supreme Court preliminarily approved several proposed revisions to the products liability instructions, which were not yet in effect. "The approvals [were] only preliminary because [the] group of instructions [had to] be viewed as a full package before authorization [could] be provided." See In Re Standard Jury Instructions in Civil Cases — Report No. 09-10 (Products Liability), No. SC09-1264, 91 So. 3d 785 (Fla. May 17, 2012).Approximately three years ago, the Court cautioned that "further work is required before publication and use of these preliminary products liability instructions, model forms, verdict forms, and any other material[s]." Id.

Addressing the substance of the newly enacted standard product liability jury instructions, there are certain key topics or instructions (set forth below) meriting discussion and analysis.

Design Defect: Consumer Expectation vs. Risk-Benefit Tests

The instructions provide separate definitions and instructions for manufacturing defect and design defect.

A product has a "manufacturing defect" "if its in a condition unreasonably dangerous to [the user] [a person in the vicinity of the product] and the product is expected to and does reach the user or consumer without substantial change affecting that condition. A product is unreasonably dangerous because of a manufacturing defect if it is different from its intended design and fails to perform as safely as the intended design would have performed." Id.at 403.7(a).

"A product is defective because of design defect if it is in a condition unreasonably dangerous to [the user] [a person in the vicinity of the product] and the product is expected to and does reach the user without substantial change affecting that condition. A product is unreasonably dangerous because of its design if [the product fails to perform as safely as an ordinary consumer would expect when used as intended or when used in a manner reasonably foreseeable by the manufacturer] [and][or] [the risk of danger in the design outweighs the benefit]." Id.at 403.7(b).

Instruction 403.7 retains...