Fla. R. Civ. P. 1.470

Exceptions Unnecessary; Jury Instructions

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RULE 1.470. 	EXCEPTIONS UNNECESSARY; JURY
INSTRUCTIONS
(a) 	Adverse Ruling. For appellate purposes no exception
shall be necessary to any adverse ruling, order, instruction, or thing
whatsoever said or done at the trial or prior thereto or after verdict,
which was said or done after objection made and considered by the
trial court and which affected the substantial rights of the party
complaining and which is assigned as error.
(b) 	Instructions to Jury. The Florida Standard Jury
Instructions appearing on The Florida Bar’s website may be used,
as provided in Florida Rule of General Practice and Judicial
Administration 2.580, by the trial judges in instructing the jury in
civil actions. Not later than at the close of the evidence, the parties
shall file written requests that the court instruct the jury on the law
set forth in such requests. The court shall then require counsel to

appear before it to settle the instructions to be given. At such
conference, all objections shall be made and ruled upon and the
court shall inform counsel of such instructions as it will give. No
party may assign as error the giving of any instruction unless that
party objects thereto at such time, or the failure to give any
instruction unless that party requested the same. The court shall
orally instruct the jury before or after the arguments of counsel and
may provide appropriate instructions during the trial. If the
instructions are given prior to final argument, the presiding judge
shall give the jury final procedural instructions after final
arguments are concluded and prior to deliberations. The court shall
provide each juror with a written set of the instructions for his or
her use in deliberations. The court shall file a copy of such
instructions.
(c) 	Orders on New Trial, Directed Verdicts, etc. It shall
not be necessary to object or except to any order granting or
denying motions for new trials, directed verdicts, or judgments non
obstante veredicto or in arrest of judgment to entitle the party
against whom such ruling is made to have the same reviewed by an
appellate court.
Committee Notes
1988 Amendment. The word “general” in the third sentence
of subdivision (b) was deleted to require the court to specifically
inform counsel of the charges it intends to give. The last sentence of
that subdivision was amended to encourage judges to furnish
written copies of their charges to juries.
2010 Amendment. Portions of form 1.985 were modified and
moved to subdivision (b) of rule 1.470 to require the court to use
published standard instructions where applicable and necessary, to
permit the judge to vary from the published standard jury
instructions, and notes only when necessary to accurately and
sufficiently instruct the jury, and to require the parties to object to
preserve error in variance from published standard jury
instructions and notes.

2014 Amendment. Florida Standard Jury Instructions
include the Florida Standard Jury Instructions—Contract and
Business Cases.

Verbatim from the official publication; the only normalization is removal of the publisher's page headers. Verify against the official source for filing-critical use — court publications change without notice.