Jury instructions repeat statutory language and therefore contain legal terms that are unfamiliar to laypeople. Discuss ways that instruction comprehension can be improved.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Answers may vary.A large number of research studies have focused on improving comprehension by modifying the language of the instructions. These studies borrow principles from the field of psycholinguistics (the study of how people understand and use language), including minimizing or eliminating the use of abstract terms, negatively modified sentences, and passive voice, and reorganizing the instructions in a more logical manner. These simplified instructions are easier for jurors to understand and use.Many states have revised portions of their jury instructions. California was the first state to finalize "plain-English" instructions for both civil and criminal trials. Not surprisingly, simplified instructions enhance jurors' comprehension of the law and result in far fewer questions to the judge about what the jury instructions mean.But confusion about language was not the primary source of comprehension errors in the Arizona deliberations: only approximately 30% of the errors involved language misunderstanding and these were often corrected by other jurors. The more common errors stemmed from the piecemeal construction of jury instructions and the fact that they failed to address crucial topics. According to Diamond and her colleagues, the instructions are put together "like a patchwork quilt with pieces from the defense, pieces from the plaintiff, and pieces from the judge." This means that jurors themselves have to try to fit the pieces together without much advice or guidance from the judge. On the other hand, instructions about seemingly important topics such as insurance and attorneys' fees are typically omitted altogether. As a result, jurors use their own knowledge and assumptions about these topics, which can result in unwarranted disparity in their decisions.There is yet another way that instruction comprehension can be improved, namely, by providing instructions at the beginning of the trial, rather than waiting until the end. Instructions are typically given after the evidence has been presented and just before the jury retires to deliberate, though some states require judges to provide preliminary instructions before any of the evidence is presented, and many individual judges do so of their own accord.