Each year the School of Government publishes new and revised pattern jury instructions for civil, criminal, and motor vehicle negligence cases. Those instructions are created and compiled by the North Carolina Conference of Superior Court Judges Committee on Pattern Jury Instructions. The 2023 updates are available for free download here. Among this year’s changes are new civil instructions related to breach of fiduciary duty and new and revised criminal instructions for the arson offenses created by S.L. 2022-8 and for the changes to organized retail theft crimes enacted by S.L. 2022-30.
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Tag: pattern jury instructions
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A Special Thank You to Judges Hobgood, Davis, Doughton, and Beal
Friday night I had the privilege of joining a dinner to honor four retiring (or recently retired) superior court judges who have devoted many years of extraordinary service to the Pattern Jury Instructions Committee. The North Carolina Pattern Jury Instructions—those enormous volumes providing instructions on all manner of criminal, civil, and motor vehicle issues—are continuously updated through the hard work of a committee of ten trial judges. Every month these judges pore over the details of new legislation and appellate opinions, and they sacrifice many weekends each year traveling to the School of Government to craft instructions that best reflect current law. The time commitment is, as they say, “no joke.”
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