What is the legal test for giving jury instructions in a personal injury trial?
California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. Johnson, 184 Cal.Rptr.3d 850, 234 Cal.App.4th 1432 (Cal. App. 2015):
The rules governing a trial court's obligation to give jury instructions without request by either party are well established. Even in the absence of a request, a trial court must instruct on general principles of law that are ... necessary to the jury's understanding of the case. [Citations.] That obligation comes into play when a statutory term does not have a plain, unambiguous meaning, has a particular and restricted meaning [citation], or has a technical meaning peculiar to the law or an area of law [citation]. [Citation.] A word or phrase having a technical, legal meaning requiring clarification by the court is one that has a definition that differs from its nonlegal meaning. [Citations.] (People v. Hudson (2006) 38 Cal.4th 1002, 1012, 44 Cal.Rptr.3d 632, 136 P.3d 168 (Hudson ).)
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