I may be a minority of one among law enforcement executives, but I find the criminal jury instructions most beneficial in educating police officers about the elements that must be included in incident and arrest reports. It makes them better investigators and report writers. Hence, I would strongly urge the jury instructions be made available to the general public.
Comment By Assist. Chief Dean Collins
Friday, March 28, 2008 at 2:57 PM
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State Jury Instructions Should Be Free
It seems to me that standard jury instructions should be free of charge, available on the Internet, and neither private parties nor non-profit groups should be able to copyright them and charge for them. The Seventh Circuit’s instructions are available for free on the Internet; why not Wisconsin’s? I’m no expert in copyright law, so I don’t know whether a lawsuit challenging such a copyright would have merit. If I’m completely off-base here, let me know (politely of course), but I think it would be great if the Court were to find the University of Wisconsin’s copyright invalid.
4 Comments on This Article
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At least West provides a valuable service by making the briefs available. Without West, you'd have to drive to the state law library to read them at all.
Of course, the Jury Instruction Committee provides a valuable service by producing the standard instructions. Still, its a service that in the federal system, and in many states, is available for free. Also, as Terrence suggests, in some other states, that have voluntary bars, and thus must provide at least SOME value to the members, they are only available to dues-paying state bar members. Comment By David Ziemer Tuesday, February 5, 2008 at 11:41 AM |
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Or the J.I. could be something that you get access to without charge with your paid membership in the State Bar. If the State Bar needed to offer incentives for joining.
Comment By Terrence Berres Tuesday, February 5, 2008 at 9:24 AM |
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Given that Wisconsin jury instructions are the work product of public employees who used their work time to create them, they should definitely be free and not subject to copyright claims. This is like West and Lexis offering lawyer's briefs for a fee - the lawyers hold the copyright and yet they sell them anyway without asking for permission. Filing a document in court does not eliminate copyright rights any more than a book in a public library. Making them available to all for free would make the practice of law better for everyone.
Comment By Nick Zales Tuesday, February 5, 2008 at 7:18 AM |
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