Joint Request To Charge Page 6
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10GENERAL CIVIL JURY INSTRUCTIONS
DUTIES OF JURY TO FIND FACTS AND FOLLOW LAW
Members of the Jury, now that you have heard all the evidence and the arguments of the
lawyers, it is my duty to instruct you on the law which applies to this case. These instructions
will be in three parts: first, the instructions on general rules that define and control the Jury’s
duties; second, the instructions that state the rules of law you must apply, i.e. what the Plaintiff
must prove to make hie/her case; and third, some rules for your deliberations.
It is your duty to find the facts from all the evidence in the case. To those facts you must
apply the las as I give it to you. You must follow the law as I give it to you whether you agree
with it or not. You must not be influenced by any personal likes or dislikes, opinions, prejudices
or sympathy. That meas that you must decide the case solely on the evidence before you and
according to the law. You will recall that you took an oath promising to do so at the beginning of
the trial.
In following my instructions, you must follow all of them and not single out some and
ignore others; they are all equally important. You must not read into these instructions or into
anything I may have said or done any suggestion as to what verdict you should return – that is a
matter entirely for you to decide.
BURDEN OF PROOF
At the beginning of the case, I told you that the Plaintiff has the burden of proving his/her
case by a preponderance of the evidence. That means the Plaintiff must produce evidence which,
when considered in light of all the facts, leads you to believe that what he/she claims is more
likely true than not. To put it differently, if you were to put each Plaintiff’s and Defendant’s
evidence on opposite sides of the scales, the Plaintiff would have to make the scales tip slightly
on his/her side. If a Plaintiff fails to meet this burden, the verdict must be for the Defendant.
Those of you who have sat on criminal cases will have heard of proof beyond a
reasonable doubt. That is a stricter standard, i.e. it requires more proof than a preponderance of
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