Asking the Right Questions: Examining the Efficacy of Question Trails as aMethod of Improving Lay Comprehension and Application of Legal Concepts

摘要

The present study examines the ‘fact based’ approach to jury instructions, which embedslegal concepts in a series of logically ordered written factual questions that the jurymust answer to reach a verdict. The study utilised a sample of 1007 adults called for juryservice in Victoria, Australia. Four instructional types (standard, plain language,checklist, fact based) were compared on paraphrase and application measures across threetime points. Results indicated that paraphrase performance was significantly lower forstandard instructions compared to all other instructional types at the pre-deliberationstage. Findings around application of law were mixed. At the pre-deliberation stage,participants receiving fact based instructions had significantly higher scores ontrue/false application questions compared with participants in other conditions, whereasthere were no significant differences between conditions for multiple-choice application.However, testing following deliberation revealed that participants in the fact-basedcondition had significantly higher scores on multiple-choice application items.