PJC Business 2024

PREFACE TO THE 2024 EDITION As both a lawyer and justice, I have served on numerous and diverse boards, com mittees, and sections. In all that service, I have always been astounded by the commit ment of the lawyers of the state of Texas. Working on the Pattern Jury Charge Committee has been no different, and, in some aspect, has proven even more astound ing, as we tackle the ever changing and challenging area of jury charges. The commitment of our members is like no other and shows in the workmanship of the newest edition of this volume. As always, the soul of the work is to provide practi tioners with the tools necessary in their cases. Among the new additions are the admonitory instructions on depositions and multi lingual jurors. The damages section has a new comment on predicate findings and a new question on specific performance. In the contracts section, the trade custom com ment has been reworked with a revised suggested instruction. And with issuing of Horton v. Kansas City Southern Railway , the volume includes a caveat, which may be worth noting. The Committee will continue to wait for case law to address updates to the broad-form discussion under Horton . And of course, we continue to make revi sions and updates throughout the book. Sometimes our knowledge is limited, so we have to reach out to lawyers with the necessary expertise. We would like to acknowledge the work of Cara Kennemer, Rick Reed, and John Roper, who provided invaluable assistance on the construction con tracts, which the Committee will continue to use as we update this section. Finally, the work of this Committee was made possible by the tremendous staff at the State Bar, many of whom contributed to this publication, but no one more than Elma Garcia, whose tireless work on and contribution to these publications cannot be overstated.

—Hon. Gina M. Benavides, Chair

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