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Montana lawmakers hear competing views on medical-malpractice jury instruction bill
Summary
House Bill 342 would reinstate a pattern jury instruction in medical malpractice cases rejecting a heightened foreseeability-based duty; physicians and hospitals supported the change, trial lawyers opposed it as industry-specific protection.
Representative Mercer opened testimony for House Bill 342, which would codify a jury-instruction standard stating that the foreseeability of a specific risk does not raise or heighten the duty owed by a medical provider beyond the reasonable standard of care applicable to that provider.
Mercer described the measure as a response to the Montana Supreme Court ecision in Cayman v. Glacier Eye Clinic (2023), which he said shifted instruction toward a foreseeability approach. Mercer said the bill would "reestablish" long-standing pattern jury instructions used by district courts and quoted the proposed language: "the foreseeability of…
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