(AP) — West Virginia Supreme
Court Chief Justice Menis Ketchum has published pattern jury instructions for
use in civil cases in the state's courts.
The Supreme
Court of Appeals of West Virginia made the announcement
Wednesday.
After five
years of research, Ketchum says he believes the uniformed set of instructions
will help civil trials run more efficiently, and put less of a workload on
courts.
Ketchum says
the instructions would be more understandable to jurors, judges and lawyers.
Webster
County Circuit Judge Jack Alsop supervised the project and says he believes it
would be a great benefit and assistance to juries.
Over 20
lawyers and judges from around the state had a hand in creating the
instructions which cover 15 topics and could be expanded in the future.
