RESPONSES
What
are plain English jury instructions?
Plain English jury
instructions are those given to the jury in simple, everyday language
rather than more complex legalese. They
make an effort to be clear, concise, and effectual in conveying
complicated legal ideas in normal English.
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What
is the purpose of having plain English jury instructions?
The frustrations
expressed by jurors during deliberations indicate a need to improve the
clarity (and, thereby, the efficacy) of jury instructions.
Jury instructions are not intended to provide a crash course on
governing legal principles so that duly educated jurors can engage in
the same decision-making process as a well-trained judge.
Rather, jury instructions should present the factual issues to be
decided and those legal rules the jury must use in deciding such issues.
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What
are some possible procedures for using plain English jury instructions?
In order to create
plain English jury instructions, the court carefully considers the
message that the jury charge is intended to communicate.
Before trial, the trial judge requires the parties to identify
two types of issues: those that are purely factual (“Was the traffic
light red or green?”) and those that concern the application of
relevant law (“Did the defendant breach his fiduciary duty?”).
Based upon these submissions, the trial judge prepares a working
list of the issues.
The judge’s list
of issues (factual and applicable law) serves as the basis for an
outline of the jury instructions. In
practical terms, the outline is a table of contents that guides the
parties in preparing proposed jury instructions that address the same
issues. In cases covered by
pattern instructions, the outline will indicate which pattern
instructions will be given and in what sequence, allowing more time to
consider any deviations that might be appropriate.
The outline approach also will encourage the appellate courts to
examine the propriety of the charge as a whole.
Currently, appellate courts tend to consider only whether
specific instructions correctly state the governing law and pay little
attention to shortcomings in the comprehensibility of the charge as a
whole. This procedure
enables the trial judge to focus on the text of the individual proposed
instructions.
Using a style manual
for jury instructions can help the judge and attorneys draft
instructions that:
- Avoid
statements of legal principles;
- Use
language that is “case-specific” in terms of the parties and the
evidence – e.g. “Mrs. Smith” and “the bus company” rather than
“plaintiff” and “defendant”;
- Organize
the instructions according to a hierarchical checklist of the applicable
legal tests and criteria, including descriptive headings and distinct
subtopics to be addressed by the jury;
- Summarize
text that is important for guiding the jury through the instructions,
even though this text may have no substantive legal content;
- Include
examples to illustrate the application of governing law;
- Include a
table of suggested “jury-friendly” terms and expression that might
replace traditional legal jargon; and
- Use
consistent terminology throughout the instructions.
The judge’s use of
a conversational tone and demeanor, written copies of instructions,
modern communications technology (e.g., overhead projectors or video
monitors), and appropriate visual aids (e.g., an outline of the charge,
a summary of key points, or other graphic presentations) tends to
improve juror comprehension. The
judge also should encourage jurors to ask questions about the
instructions before they begin deliberating.
If closing arguments
follow the jury instructions, the trial attorneys display the precise
text of the jury instructions and discuss the evidence in terms of the
instructions.
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What
are the advantages of plain English jury instructions?
Some advantages of
plain English jury instructions include:
- By
preparing a working outline of disputed factual and legal issues, the
judge and trial attorneys avoid the problem of jury charges that are a
garbled patchwork of competing submissions by the opposing parties;
- Greater
attention to the overall structure and character of the charge minimizes
redundancies, inconsistencies, and omissions in the instructions; and
- Upgrading
the quality of jury instructions encourages jurors to consider all of
the issues, rather than mistakenly looking to isolated instructions as
hit-or-miss guidance on what they are supposed to do.
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What
are the disadvantages of plain English jury instructions?
Some
disadvantages of plain English jury instructions include:
-
Formulating
an outline of issues to be addressed in jury instructions requires the
judge to dedicate additional time becoming familiar with the case before
trial;
-
An
outline of disputed factual and legal issues necessarily is subject to
change during the course of the trial.
Some judges may be reluctant to make adjustments to instructions
about issues that have been “already decided”; and
-
Deviations
from approved pattern instructions or other jury instructions that have
survived prior appeals create more potential grounds for appeal.
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