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Rule 51 – Instructions to Jury

May 13, 2021 | Civil Procedure, Mississippi

(a) Procedural Instructions. At the commencement of and during the course of a trial, the court may orally give the jury cautionary and other instructions of law relating to trial procedure, the duty and function of the jury, and may acquaint the jury generally with the nature of the case.
(b) Substantive Instructions. Each party to an action may submit six instructions on the substantive law of the case. However, the court may permit the submission of additional instructions as justice requires. The court may instruct the jury of its own initiative.

(1) When Submitted. Instructions proposed by parties shall be submitted to the court at the pre-trial hearing as provided by Rule 16. In the event a pre-trial hearing is not conducted, proposed instructions shall be delivered to the court and counsel for all parties not later than twenty-four hours prior to the time the action is scheduled to be tried.
(2) Identification. The court’s substantive instructions shall be numbered and prefixed with the letter C. Plaintiff’s instructions shall be numbered and prefixed with the letter P. Defendant’s instructions shall be numbered and prefixed with the letter D. In multi-party actions, Roman numerals shall be used to identify the proposed instructions of similarly aligned parties; the Roman numerals shall be placed after the alphabetical designation of P or D, as the case may be, and shall conform to the sequential listing of parties plaintiff or defendant as stated in the complaint.

Instructions shall not otherwise be identified with a party.

(3)Objections. No party may assign as error the granting or the denying of an instruction unless he objects thereto at any time before the instructions are presented to the jury; opportunity shall be given to make the objection out of the hearing of the jury. All objections shall be stated into the record and shall state distinctly the matter to which objection is made and the grounds therefor.
(c)Instructions to be Written. Except as allowed by Rule 51(a), all instructions shall be in writing.
(d)When Read; Available to Counsel and Jurors. Instructions shall be read by the court to the jury at the close of all the evidence and prior to oral argument; they shall be available to counsel for use during argument. Instructions shall be carried by the jury into the jury room when it retires to consider its verdict.

Miss. R. Civ. P. 51

Advisory Committee Notes

It is the trial court’s responsibility to properly instruct the jury. “[W]here under the evidence a party is entitled to have the jury instructed regarding a particular issue and where the party requests an instruction which for whatever reason is inadequate in form or content, the trial judge has the responsibility either to reform and correct the proffered instruction himself or to advise counsel on the record of the perceived deficiencies therein and to afford counsel a reasonable opportunity to prepare a new corrected instruction.” Mississippi Valley Silica Co., Inc. v. Eastman, 92 So. 3d 666, 669 (Miss. 2012) (quoting Byrd v. McGill, 478 So. 2d 302, 303 (Miss. 1985)). See Rule 3.07 of the Uniform Circuit and County Court Rules for additional provisions governing jury instructions. See also Mississippi Model Jury Instructions of 2012 which were prepared by a commission appointed by the Mississippi Supreme Court. Although not formally adopted or approved by the Supreme Court of Mississippi, the “Plain Language Model Jury Instructions” have been placed on the Supreme Court website as an aid to trial judges and attorneys.

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