Start Your Case with Jury Instructions
One of my favorite quotes in life is from Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll:
Alice: Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?
Cheshire Cat: That depends a good deal on where you want to get to
Alice: I don't much care where.
Cheshire Cat: Then it doesn't much matter which way you go.
You have to know where you’re going, to make decisions about what the right direction is.
The very last thing that jurors hear before they begin their deliberation are the jury instructions. So it’s important to build the case around the jury instructions. I like to draft the jury instructions before I draft the complaint. Of course they will change or be modified as new facts emerge, but it helps to have a guidepost. I review the jury instructions before:
- Drafting the Complaint
- Preparing Themes for the Case
- Analyzing the Facts of the Case
- Taking Depositions
- Answering Discovery Requests
- Preparing for Trial
If you know where you’re going, the decisions on how to get there become much easier.
Uh...Alice in Wonderland was written by Lewis Carroll. ;-)
You got me there. Sometimes I get dyslexic. C.S. Lewis did the whole Chronicles of Narnia thing.
Lewis Carroll was Alice in Wonderland.
C.S. Carroll didn't write anything.
Thanks for the correction. I have corrected the post. It's nice to know people are paying attention.
