In re Amendments to Fla. Rules of Judicial Admin.

• Decision Date: 05 March 2020
• Docket Number: No. SC20-145,SC20-145
• Parties: IN RE: AMENDMENTS TO THE FLORIDA RULES OF JUDICIAL ADMINISTRATION, THE FLORIDA RULES OF CIVIL PROCEDURE, AND THE FLORIDA RULES OF CRIMINAL PROCEDURE—STANDARD JURY INSTRUCTIONS.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

IN RE: AMENDMENTS TO THE FLORIDA RULES OF JUDICIAL

ADMINISTRATION, THE FLORIDA RULES OF CIVIL PROCEDURE,

AND THE FLORIDA RULES OF CRIMINAL PROCEDURE—STANDARD JURY INSTRUCTIONS.

No. SC20-145

Supreme Court of Florida

March 5, 2020

CORRECTED OPINION

PER CURIAM.

The Court, on its own motion,¹ adopts new Florida Rule of Judicial Administration 2.270 (Supreme Court Committees on Standard Jury Instructions) to authorize the Supreme Court committees on standard jury instructions to approve for publication and use new and amended instructions the committees develop. In recognition of this newly granted authority, the Court also adopts, on its own motion,² new Florida Rule of Judicial Administration 2.580 (Standard Jury Instructions), amends Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.470(b) (Instructions toJury) and Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.390 (Jury Instructions), and deletes Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.985 (Standard Jury Instructions) as unnecessary.³

Background

This Court is currently one of the few state high courts that authorizes or approves standard, pattern, or model jury instructions for use in civil and criminal cases.⁴ The development and authorization for use of Florida's standard jury instructions currently is a two-step process, in which the three committees on standard jury instructions, created by this Court,⁵ prepare new and amendedstandard jury instructions for their respective case types and report those instruction changes to this Court, which, in turn, authorizes the instructions for publication and use in a written opinion. See, e.g., In re Std. Jury Instrs. in Crim. Cases—Report 2018-03, 272 So. 3d 1210 (Fla. 2019); In re Std. Jury Instrs. in Civil Cases & Std. Jury Instrs. in Contract & Bus. Cases—Joint Report No. 18-01, 260 So. 3d 965 (Fla. 2018). The Court's opinions authorizing the instructions for publication and use include the following caveat explaining that by so authorizing the instructions the Court expresses no opinion on the correctness of the instructions and that the authorization does not foreclose the requesting of additional or alternative instructions:

In authorizing the publication and use of these instructions, we express no opinion on [the instructions'] correctness and remind all interested parties that this authorization forecloses neither requesting additional or alternative instructions nor contesting the legal correctness of the instructions. We further caution all interested parties that any comments associated with the instructions reflect only the opinion of the Committee and are not necessarily indicative of the views of this Court as to their correctness or applicability.

See, e.g., In re Std. Jury Instrs. in Civil Cases & Std. Jury Instrs. in Contract & Bus. Cases—Joint Report 18-01, 260 So. 3d 965 (Fla. 2018); In re Std. Jury Instrs. in Crim. Cases—Report 2018-11, 260 So. 3d 1024, 1025 (Fla. 2018). Consistent with that caveat, Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.470(b) (Instructions to Jury) and Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.985 (Standard Jury Instructions), provide, respectively, that the standard jury instructions authorized for publication and use by this Court may be used by trial judges in charging the jury in civil and criminal cases to the extent that those instructions are applicable, unless the trial judge determines that the standard instruction is erroneous or inadequate, in which case the trial judge should modify the standard instruction or give such other instruction as the judge determines to be necessary to accurately and sufficiently instruct the jury.

This Court has determined that the current process for developing and authorizing standard jury instructions is more cumbersome than necessary, and that despite the caveat routinely included in the Court's opinions, some wrongly believe that by authorizing for publication and use standard instructions prepared by the committees, the Court has ruled on the legal correctness of those instructions.⁶ Moreover, because of this Court's authorizing of the standardinstructions, trial judges are sometimes reluctant to modify standard jury instructions or to give other instructions requested by a party that may be more appropriate.

Therefore, in order to put in place a more efficient process for providing standard jury instructions to be used in civil and criminal cases and to avoid any misconception that this Court has "adopted," "approved," or otherwise ruled on the legal correctness of the standard jury instructions prepared by the committees, the Court has determined that it should no longer be involved in the development and authorization for use of Florida's standard jury instructions. Rather, the three committees the Court has created to prepare standard jury instructions should be authorized to develop and approve, by two-thirds vote, new and amended standard jury instructions to be published for use in the committees' respective case types. Adopting a procedure for providing standard jury instructions that does not require this Court's involvement is consistent with the procedures for providing the standard, pattern, or model jury instructions that are used in most other states, inwhich entities other than the states' high court are responsible for developing and approving those instructions for use.⁷ Giving the three Supreme Court standardjury instructions committees plenary authority over their respective standard jury instructions also is consistent with the procedures for developing and approving for use the pattern or model jury instructions used in the federal district courts.⁸

Amendments

Accordingly, the Court adopts new Rule of Judicial Administration 2.270 (Supreme Court Committees on Standard Jury Instructions). Subdivision (a) (Creation and Authority) of the new rule recognizes that the three Supreme Court committees on standard jury instructions were created by this Court to develop new and amended standard jury instructions for use in their respective case types and that those committees are now also authorized to approve for publication and use the instructions they develop. Subdivision (a) also explains that the standard jury instructions approved for publication and use by the committees are not approved or otherwise specifically authorized for use by this Court and that the approval of standard instructions by the committees shall not be construed as an adjudicative determination on the legal correctness of the instructions, which must await an actual case and controversy.

Subdivision (b) (Responsibilities) of new rule 2.270 specifically charges the committees with the responsibility to (1) develop and approve for publication and use new and amended standard jury instructions in response to statutory changes, judicial decisions, or other events that affect the presentation of cases to juries; (2)review the standard jury instructions for errors or inaccuracies and amend the instructions as necessary to correct any errors or inaccuracies found; (3) address specific requests from this Court concerning the need for new or amended standard instructions; (4) consider modified instructions given by a trial court sent to a committee under new Rule of Judicial Administration 2.580 to determine whether amendments to the standard instructions are warranted; and (5) consider changes to the standard instructions suggested by judges, members of the Bar, and other interested persons.

Subdivision (c) (Procedures) of new rule 2.270 contains the procedural requirements that govern the committees' development and approval of standard jury instructions. These include such things as requiring the publishing for comment of all new and amended instructions and substantial revisions to a previously published instruction change, which comments must be considered by the committee before a final vote on the change, and requiring a two-thirds committee vote to approve an instruction change for use. The committees must adopt operating procedures that comply with these requirements.

Under subdivision (d) (Membership and Organization) of new rule 2.270, the Chief Justice of this Court will appoint to each committee up to thirty-three members, who will serve staggered three-year terms. At least one third of the members of each committee must be current or former judges and the remainder ofthe members must be attorneys in good standing with The Florida Bar. A committee member may serve no more than two consecutive three-year terms, unless the Court determines it is in the best interest of the committee for a member to serve additional terms. The Chief Justice also will appoint the chair and vice chair from among the committee members, each for one-year terms subject to reappointment.

Under subdivision (e) (Staff Support) of new rule 2.270, the staff support for the committees will remain as it currently is, with The Florida Bar providing staff support for the committees on standard jury instructions in civil cases and in contract and business cases and the Office of the States Courts Administrator providing staff support for the committee on standard jury instructions in criminal cases. Under subdivision (f) (Publication of Approved Instructions) of the new rule, all standard jury instructions approved by the committees must be published on the jury instructions page of this Court's website, which is currently https://jury.flcourts.org.

New Rule of Judicial Administration 2.580 (Standard Jury Instructions) is modeled after existing Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.470(b) and Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.985. Subdivision (a) (Use; Modification) of new rule 2.580 provides that trial judges may use the standard jury instructions on this Court's website to instruct juries to the extent that the instructions are applicable,unless the trial judge determines that an applicable standard is erroneous or inadequate, in which event the judge shall modify the standard instruction or give another...