Are jury instructions for judges available online?
Yes, Washington's pattern jury instructions are available to judges in two places:
- Civil and Criminal Pattern Jury Instructions are located on the Judges' Resources/Jury Instructions page of the Inside Courts Web site. These forms are in Word format, making it easy to copy and paste sections into one's own Word documents when drafting jury instructions for particular cases. The above page also has a search engine and individual chapters of related instructions.
- Instructions are also available to the states judges at no cost through Westlaw. This version may be more helpful for judges when reviewing the cases and statutes underlying a particular instruction, as the Comments in the Westlaw version have hyperlinks to the cited authorities.
Other types of jury instructions can be found by performing a search from the Benchbooks page of the Inside Courts Web site. Type jury instruction in the Search box and select search type Exact Phrase.
See also: Answer ID: Washington State Pattern Jury Instructions available to the public from the eService Center on the Washington Courts Web site (www.courts.wa.gov).
RN id: 816