805.13.Jury instructions; note taking; form of verdict.

Once the jury is sworn, Section 805.13(1) requires every statement or comment the judge makes to the jury, or in its presence, about the case to be on the record. Section 805.13(2) then has the court decide whether jurors may take notes: if it authorizes note-taking, the court instructs jurors they may take written notes except during opening statements and closing arguments, stresses the confidentiality of those notes, and ensures they are collected and destroyed after the verdict; if the court does not authorize note-taking, it has to state its reasons on the record. The court can also give additional preliminary instructions on the nature of the case, what counts as evidence, the burden of proof, witness credibility, and the instruction not to discuss the case before deliberations, disclosing those instructions to the parties in advance so either side can object or propose its own.

Section 805.13(3) requires the court to hold a conference with counsel, outside the jury’s presence, at the close of the evidence and before arguments, where counsel can file written motions on jury instructions and verdict questions. The court tells counsel on the record what it proposes to do, and counsel has to object to the proposed instructions or verdict with particularity on the record; failing to object at that conference waives any error in what was proposed.

Section 805.13(4) requires the jury to receive one complete written set of instructions covering the burden of proof and the substantive law, given before or after closing arguments, and failing to object to a variance between the instructions given and those proposed does not itself waive error. Once the jury has retired to deliberate, Section 805.13(5) lets the court reinstruct the jury on all or part of what was already given, or provide supplementary instructions as it sees fit.