Several years ago our column covered jury instructions for the 50 states. Much has changed since then in the world of legal research sources, but the need for jury instructions-whether model, standard, pattern or one-of-a kind, hasn’t diminished. Jury instructions continue to provide legal researchers with succinct descriptions of causes of actions as well as sample wording for juries to consider. Therefore, a researcher will find them helpful to enumerate the elements of a claim before an issue reaches the courthouse door. If you are unfamiliar with the usefulness of jury instructions consider the article from Perspectives by Ellen Platt: “Jury Instructions: An Underutilized Resource” (7 #2 Perspectives 90, 1999). In some publications, model jury instructions include case citations or cross-references that allow the researcher to expand their understanding of a cause of action. Whether these instructions are understood by the jury pool is up for discussion – consider California’s adoption of plain language jury instructions in 2004 and 2005 for civil and criminal cases. We’ll leave formulating understandable language to the lawyers but help you find state jury instructions available online.

This time around we’re concentrating on accessing publicly available electronic versions of state jury instructions. We’re not including complete bibliographic information for print editions because while that information is always helpful to us, it is readily available in local research guides, a Jury Instructions Bibliography from the Maricopa Superior Court as well as standard bibliographic sources such as Legal information Buyer’s Guide, Legal Looseleafs in Print or Worldcat. Five years ago, available online instructions included Alaska, Arizona, California, Delaware, Hawai’i, Idaho, Minnesota, Missouri (revisions only), New Jersey, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Tennessee, West Virginia (Proposed version only) and Wyoming (Civil; revisions only). So, how have the states fared in five years?

Alaska

Alaska Civil Pattern Jury Instructions

Alaska Criminal Pattern Jury Instructions

Arizona

Revised Arizona Jury Instructions – Civil, 4^th Edition

Revised Arizona Jury Instructions (RAJI( Criminal) 3d)

California

California Civil Jury Instructions (CACI)

California Criminal Jury Instructions (CALCRIM)

Connecticut

Civil Jury Instructions

Criminal Jury Instructions

http://www.jud.state.ct.us/CriminalJury/

Delaware

Pattern Jury Instructions for Civil Practice in the Superior Court of the State of Delaware

http://courts.delaware.gov/Jury%20Services/pdf/?patternjury_rev.pdf

Florida

Florida Standard Jury Instructions In Civil Cases

http://www.flcourts18.org/PDF/civil.pdf

Florida Standard Jury Instructions In Criminal Cases

http://www.floridasupremecourt.org/jury_instructions/chapters/entireversion/onlinejurryinstructions.pdf

Hawai’i

Hawai’i Civil Jury Instructions

http://www.courts.state.hi.us/page_server/LegalReferences/7A6B90BB7F4DF3D7ED097CE955.html

Hawai’i Criminal Jury Instructions

http://www.courts.state.hi.us/page_server/LegalReferences/7A6B90BB7F4DF3D7ED097CE955.html

Idaho

Idaho Civil Jury Instructions

http://www.isc.idaho.gov/juryinst_cov.htm

Idaho Criminal Jury Instructions

http://www.isc.idaho.gov/idaho_courts_e.htm

Illinois

Recent Civil Jury Instructions

http://www.state.il.us/court/CircuitCourt/JuryInstructions/default.asp

Michigan

Model Civil Jury Instructions

http://courts.mi.gov/mcji-index.htm

Missouri

Missouri Approved Instructions: Civil and Criminal [Recent Orders]

http://www.courts.mo.gov/page.asp?id=589

Montana

Criminal Jury Instructions (MCJI) [Additions since 1999]

http://www.doj.mt.gov/resources/criminaljuryinstructions.asp

New Jersey

Model Civil Jury Charges

http://www.judiciary.state.nj.us/civil/civindx.htm

Criminal Jury Charges

http://www.judiciary.state.nj.us/criminal/juryindx.htm

New Mexico

Uniform Jury Instructions – Civil

http://www.conwaygreene.com/nmsu/lpext.dll?f=templates&fn=main-h.htm&2.0

Uniform Jury Instructions – Criminal

http://www.conwaygreene.com/nmsu/lpext.dll?f=templates&fn=main-h.htm&2.0

New York

Criminal Jury Instructions 2d

North Dakota

Pattern Jury Instructions (select Civil or Criminal)

Oklahoma

Oklahoma Uniform Jury Instructions (Civil, Criminal, Juvenile)

Utah

Model Utah Jury Instructions (Civil, Criminal)

West Virginia

Proposed Jury Instructions for Civil and Criminal Trials

With the exception of Wyoming, those jury instructions publicly available five years ago continue to be available. Several of their sister states have joined in providing full text access while some provide updated additions or recent orders reflecting new language. Overall, there has been little change in the full-text public electronic availability of state jury instructions. Keep in mind that electronic access may be available via Lexis and Westlaw-you can check their directories without incurring any cost by going to Lexis and Westlaw. Casemaker, the databases available to many bar associations as part of a consortium, surprisingly only has jury instructions for Idaho, New Mexico, North Carolina and Ohio at this time. Loislaw includes the jury instructions for Arizona and Massachusetts in their State Bar CLE publications databases. Other commercial publishers may also play a role in your search. For example, Pennsylvania jury instructions are available for purchase electronically via PBI.org by individual instruction.