V.R.C.P. 51
Reporter’s Notes-2017 Amendment
Rule 51(b) is amended contemporaneously with an amendment of V.R.Cr.P. 30 to clarify that, in both civil and criminal trials, objections to proposed jury instructions fully articulated at a charge conference may be preserved without the necessity for their reassertion after the court’s reading of the instructions and prior to the jury’s retirement for deliberations.
To facilitate the process, the court is required to give the parties a copy of the proposed charge and to include a copy in the record, informing the parties of its action on any requested instructions. The parties may then make objections to the instructions on the record at the charge conference or otherwise before the jury retires.
The amendment does not obviate the need for fair and reasonable articulation of specific objections to jury instructions, asserted distinctly and stating the bases thereof. However, the amendment contemplates that where the record of an objection to a jury instruction is well developed, with distinct articulation at an earlier juncture in the case, a lengthy repetition of the specific objection and its bases is not required postcharge and predeliberation, provided that the instructions as actually given do not differ in substance from those approved by the court as a result of the charge conference.
The amendment does not require reassertion of objections to instructions given in the manner that it prescribes unless the court’s instruction as given does not comport with the particular language of an instruction that has been indicated by the court in a precharge ruling, or the court has omitted a particular instruction to the jury altogether. Nor does the amended rule preclude assertion of an objection to an instruction, the basis for which is first presented in the court’s instructions as actually stated to the jury. In such circumstances, preservation of the objection would require full articulation of a party’s objection, distinctly stating the bases thereof, postcharge, and predeliberation, to provide the court with the opportunity to reasonably address any claim of error. A written copy of the version objected to must be included in the record.