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Federal Crimes (Thomson Reuters), discussing elements and defenses of the most commonly charged federal crimes.
Law of Confessions (Thomson Reuters), originally published in 1984 and updated every year, is the leading treatise on the admissibility of confessions.

recent blog posts

January 2026
Eighth Circuit posts revised civil and criminal Model Instructions
2025 Justice Manual revisions
November 2025
The Ninth Circuit has revised its Model Civil Jury Instructions
The Third Circuit posts revised copies of chapters 5, 6, and 8-11 of its Model Civil Instructions

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federal pattern instructions
The First Circuit no longer has official pattern instructions (a 1997 set of criminal instructions is no longer posted). Unofficial civil (2011-12; "no longer updated") and criminal (12/8/23) instructions are posted on the Maine District Court Web site.
There is an unofficial undated set of Second Circuit civil instructions posted on the District of Vermont Web site.
The Third Circuit has official civil (September 2025) and criminal (April 2024) model jury instructions.
The Fourth Circuit does not have official pattern instructions. However, a set of unofficial criminal instructions and annotations (Feb. 1, 2024) is posted on the District of South Carolina Web site. Former U.S. Magistrate Judge Carl Horn's Federal Criminal Jury Instructions for the Fourth Circuit (2016) are also widely used, but are not freely available on the Internet.
The Fifth Circuit has official civil (June 2020), trademark (February 2024), and criminal (2024) pattern jury instructions.
The Sixth Circuit has official criminal (5/1/2025) (but not civil) pattern jury instructions.
The Seventh Circuit has official civil (08/2017) (chapter 11 in 2021) and criminal (2023) pattern jury instructions.
The Eighth Circuit has official civil and criminal (July 2025) model instructions.
The Ninth Circuit has official civil and criminal (September 2025) model instructions.
The Tenth Circuit has official criminal (last update 2/7/2025) (but not civil) pattern jury instructions.
The Eleventh Circuit has official civil and criminal (updated 9/2025) pattern jury instructions.
LexisNexis sells Civil ("blue book") and Criminal ("red book") Jury Instructions for the District of Columbia.
The Federal Judicial Conference subcommittee drafted a set of jury instructions in 1982. These instructions were revised in 1987, but have not been revised since then. The subcommittee that drafted them no longer exists, and there are no plans for a new edition. The 1987 revised version is posted on the Federal Judicial Center Web site for "historical interest."


state pattern instructions
vLex compiles a comprehensive list of the state jury instructions that are freely available on the Internet.
Links to other state instructions that are not freely available on the Internet may be found on this Westlaw page.