Rule 59.Instructions to Jury and Deliberation

Rule 59 walks through the jury's instructions and deliberations from start to finish. Parties normally submit proposed instructions at the start of trial, though instructions on legal questions that couldn't have been anticipated may come in later, right up until the court instructs the jury. The court must reduce the instructions to writing, or have a party do it, state all the law the jury needs, and treat any fact the court is required by statute to know as conclusively established. The jury takes those written instructions into deliberation with it, and the clerk files a copy in the case record.

Once the case is submitted, the jury retires to deliberate — kept together under an officer's charge unless the court allows separation, which it may do only when satisfied the deliberation process won't suffer for it. Jurors can bring exhibits other than depositions, their own notes, and, at the court's discretion, a written summary of the issues; pleadings never go to the jury room. The officer in charge can't communicate with the jury beyond asking whether they've reached a verdict, and can't reveal anything about their deliberations or the verdict before it's rendered. Jurors are barred from sharing private, outside knowledge of the case with each other or letting it affect their own vote. If the jury has a legal question during deliberation, the judge can bring them back into court and answer it, but only in the parties' presence or after they've been notified, and the judge cannot instruct on or comment on the facts.

The rule also covers what happens if the jury can't agree: the court may eventually discharge it if there's no realistic chance of agreement, if some accident or calamity forces the issue, or if a juror becomes ill. The case can then be retried. When the jury does reach a verdict, three-fourths of the jurors is enough in a civil case; any party can ask that the jury be polled, and if fewer jurors confirm the verdict than that threshold requires, deliberations continue. An informal or insufficient verdict can be corrected by the jury or sent back for further deliberation. Finally, to preserve an objection to the jury instructions, or to a statement of issues submitted to the jury, for appeal, a party generally must have raised the specific objection to the trial court and noted an exception right after the jury was instructed.