Put the Picture in the Box: Advice on Instructing Juries in Insurance Litigation

On his Insurance Scrawl weblog, Marc Mayerson offers up a lengthy, detailed and, yes, instructive post on "Jury Instructions in Insurance-Coverage and Insurance Bad-Faith Cases."  Marc provides plenty of practical advice for practitioners on either side of an insurance law dispute, and valuable reading for claims professionals or claimants who want to understand just What Their Lawyers Are Up To in trial preparation. 

Jury instructions can be compared to the wire armature underneath a clay sculpture: whichever side of the case he or she is on, counsel wants to be able to point to that armature and impress the jury with how well his or her side has fleshed it out with evidence.  ("My case hangs on those bones much more persuasively than my opponent's, ladies and gentlemen.")  The practical value of this bit of advice, in particular, cannot be overstated:

One mistake that lead counsel often makes in my view is not to personally take ownership of the jury instructions and instead delegates their preparation to the junior member of the team.  Ultimately, it is the jury instructions that determine the case – and the appeal.  Thus, it should be the responsibility of lead trial counsel to be intimately familiar with the drafting, submission, and argument over instructions to the jurors.

A highly recommended post.