How to draft better jury instructions

This one comes to us from our good buddy Raymond Ward at the (new) legal writer blog:

Jury instructions are too often so poorly written that even the most intelligent juror cannot understand them. That’s a serious problem. So how can we make jury instructions more understandable? Prof. Peter Tiersma offers many concrete suggestions in this article, available for free download on SSRN. If you’re a trial judge or trial lawyer, you need to read it.

A big hat tip to Mr. Ward.  Please visit his blog soon and often.

I am the scholarship dude.

(jbl)