Beyond Plain Language: A Learner-Centered Approach to Pattern Jury Instructions

Methodology on Trial

“…The ensuing objections and counterclaims about her expert status reveal that lawyers can construct ad hoc theories expertise that depart drastically from those outlined by the legal field and those developed by technical communication scholarship. Collectively, these findings support Miles and Cottle's (2010) claim that technical communication is uniquely situated to intervene into the legal field to improve the comprehensibility of discourse offered to juries by officers of the court. These findings also highlight inequalities women and minorities face due to paternalistic and exclusionary practices endemic in scientific and legal communities.…”

“…Miles and Cotter (2010) concluded technical communication scholars are uniquely situated to address the difficulties jurors face (pp. 110–111).…”

“…In “Beyond plain language: A learner-centered approach to pattern jury instructions,” Katherine S. Miles and Jacquline L. Cottle (2010) apply this framework in order to explain the difficulties jurors face as they interpret and apply judges’ instructions. Miles and Cottle acknowledged that federal and state government agencies have increased efforts to make their public communications more comprehensible, but they claimed jury trials nonetheless retain linguistic practices beyond the reach of most laypeople.…”

“…Specifically, Miles and Cottle (2010) argued that methods used to gauge and increase workplace competencies can be used to gauge and increase jurors’ ability to learn the legal jargon and specialized reasoning processes needed to render a verdict (pp. 101–102).…”

Flowcharts, Swimlanes, and Timelines

“…While legal research has mostly concentrated on visual legal rhetoric and the persuasion of materials used in court, such as briefs, judicial opinions, pieces of evidence, and jury instructions (Miles & Cottle, 2010; Porter, 2014; Rosman, 2013; Sherwin, 2011), a second stream of research instead addresses the functionality of legal documents in everyday use in nonadversarial settings. Proactive law and contracting scholars focus especially on improving business-to-business or business-to-government contractual documents and practices in order to prevent disputes and secure business success for both parties (Haapio & Siedel, 2013, p. 6).…”