Jury Instructions: Winning Strategies in a Changing Legal Landscape

Why Attend?

• Develop strategies to advocate for instructions that frame your case in the best possible light.
• Learn how to anticipate and counter opposing counsel’s challenges.
• Understand how to protect your record for appeal by ensuring instructions comply with the law.
• Get updates on recent Virginia case law on jury instructions.
• Learn when to use model jury instructions and master arguments to challenge their use when they don’t serve your client’s needs.
• Explore the art of creating case-specific instructions that reflect the nuances of your facts.
• Develop strategies for both proffering or resisting non-model instructions.

In the ever-evolving world of jury instructions, precision is key. Recent Virginia Supreme Court decisions from 2024 and January 2025 have introduced new guidance, challenging some traditional practices and reshaping how instructions are crafted and delivered. Are you prepared to navigate this shifting terrain to secure the best outcome for your clients?

Jury instructions are the final roadmap jurors use to decide your case. Missteps can be fatal to your case. Don’t let poor instructions undermine your case—master the art and science of jury instructions and deliver justice for your clients.

Join us for this important CLE and stay ahead of the curve in Virginia’s evolving legal landscape.

Topics to be covered:

• The Impact of New Case Law:
  • Analyze two recent Virginia Supreme Court cases that could affect how you approach jury instructions.
  • Understand their implications for using model instructions versus tailored ones.
• Model Instructions: To Use or Not to Use?
  • Learn when to embrace model jury instructions for clarity and consistency.
  • Master arguments to challenge their use when they don’t serve your client’s needs.
• Crafting Your Own Instructions:
  • Explore the art of creating case-specific instructions that reflect the nuances of your facts.
  • Develop strategies for both proffering or resisting non-model instructions.

Registration Deadlines:

Cancellation Policy: Cancellation/transfer requests will be honored until 5:00 p.m. the day preceding the seminar. You will, however, be charged $40 if you cancel or transfer your registration to a different seminar after the link to the materials has been e-mailed by Virginia CLE^®.

Full refunds or transfers are available up to two days after a webcast in the unlikely event that you experience technical difficulties.

Dietary Restrictions: If you have dietary restrictions and are attending the seminar in person, please email deanna.mcglothlin@vacle.org.

Inclement Weather Policy and Updates

MCLE Credit Caveat: The MCLE Board measures credits by the time you spend in attendance. If you enter a seminar late or leave it early, or both, you must reflect those adjustments accurately in the credits you report on your credit reporting form. A code will be given at the end of the seminar, which must be written on your MCLE form.

Private recording of this program is prohibited.

Can’t Attend?

E-mail distance_ed@vacle.org to be notified when/if this program is made available as an online or USB seminar.
E-mail publications@vacle.org to be notified when/if this program’s seminar materials are made available for sale.

Course Schedule

• Q&A will be handled via chat room for Webcast attendees.
• Q&A will be handled via e-mail for telephone seminar attendees.

Hon. Lisa B. Kemler, Alexandria Circuit Court / Alexandria

R. Lee Livingston, Livingston Law Group / Charlottesville

About the Speakers

Hon. Lisa B. Kemler, Alexandria Circuit Court / Alexandria

Bio coming soon.

R. Lee Livingston, Livingston Law Group, PLLC / Charlottesville

R. Lee Livingston practices civil litigation, personal injury law, medical malpractice, and defamation law at his firm, Livingston Law Group, PLLC. He served as president of the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association in 2017–2018. He is former chair of the Virginia State Bar Litigation Section Board of Governors and the Virginia State Bar Mandatory Continuing Legal Education Board. He is a fellow in the Virginia Law Foundation.

Mr. Livingston teaches Trial Advocacy and Professional Liability Law at the University of Virginia School of Law. He is co-author of Evidence for the Trial Lawyer, a Matthew-Bender (Lexis) publication. He has served on the Virginia Supreme Court’s Appellate Rules Advisory Committee and Electronic Filing Study Committee, and the Virginia Model Jury Instructions Committee. He is a member of the Boyd-Graves Conference and chairs its evidence committee.

Mr. Livingston is listed in Best Lawyers in America and was named Lawyer of the Year—2012 and 2021 Medical Malpractice, and Lawyer of the Year—2015, 2017, 2019, and 2021 Personal Injury, Charlottesville, Virginia. He is “AV-preeminent” rated by Martindale Hubbell, and he has been honored for selection by Richmond magazine as a top 100 Virginia “Super Lawyer” and a top 50 “Super Lawyer” in Richmond, Virginia. He was awarded the Professor W. McKinley Smiley Jr. Lighthouse Award by the Southern Trial Lawyers Association in 2019.