Resources: Jury Instructions

Toolkit for Legal Interpreters

Resources: Jury Instructions

The collection of jury instructions presented below are drawn from both criminal and civil trial bench books as well as a mock courtroom setting. They are excellent sources of practice to determine how to translate key legal concepts that a jury must follow.

These sample jury instructions can be used in concert with Semantic Awareness, a skill development activity, to determine meaning of legal concepts in context.

Sheneman provides an ASL overview of this resource section and how it can be used.

Sample Jury Instructions:

Americans With Disability Act & Family and Medical Leave Act – These text instructions pertain to workplace absenteeism.
Auto Accident– These text instructions pertain to the claim of permanent injuries as a result of an accident.
Bank Robbery– These text instructions pertain to the conspiracy to commit bank robbery.
Chain Reaction Car Accident – These trial instructions pertain to motor vehicle accidents involving multiple parties.
Driving While Intoxicated – These video instructions, read by a judge, pertain to a criminal case in which a deaf defendant is charged with operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of intoxicating liquor.

Judge Giving Instructions

Interpretation to Deaf Juror

Interpretation to Deaf Defendant

False Claims Act – These text instructions pertain to losses sustained by the Government as a result of fraud.
Possession with Intent to Distribute – These text instructions pertain to the conspiracy to possess and distribute drugs.

Federal Jury Instructions:

Model Instruction for Circuit Courts – This website presents various pattern jury instructions for the federal legal system.

Grant Recognition

The contents of the Project CLIMB website was developed under a grant (#H160D160001) from the Department of Education. The contents do not necessarily represent the policy of the Department of Education. Do not assume endorsement by the Federal government.

As of December 31, 2021, this grant project is no longer active or soliciting applications.
This website will remain available as a resource.

The National Clearinghouse of Rehabilitation Training Materials (NCRTM) website is a central portal for accessing archived and new rehabilitation training resources offering search capabilities, a quality rating system, as well as enhanced usability and accessibility.