MA · jury_instructions
Instruction 1.200, Criminal Model Jury Instructions for Use in the District Court
Recordation of proceedings
RECORDATION OF PROCEEDINGS
Members of the jury, these proceedings are being recorded on the
recorder that you see on the clerk’s bench here in front of me. This
generally produces a satisfactory record, and is considerably less
expensive to you as taxpayers than the cost of a stenographer.
However, for the benefit of the lawyers and any witnesses who will be
testifying, I want to mention that the microphones that are in the witness
box and at the lawyers’ tables are very focused, to avoid picking up
background noise. For that reason, it is important to speak directly into
them.
There is a court rule that makes it the responsibility of the attorneys
to work with me to produce an accurate record. They should bring to my
attention whenever someone is not using the microphone properly, so that
I can correct it.
District Court Special Rule 211(A)(3) provides that “[c]ounsel shall be responsible for assisting in the
creation of an audible record by properly using the microphones provided. Counsel shall speak with
sufficient clarity and in sufficient proximity to the microphones to ensure an audible record, and shall
be responsible for requesting the judge, when necessary, to instruct other counsel, witnesses or
others as to the proper use of the microphones in order to ensure an audible record.”
History
Instruction 1.200, Criminal Model Jury Instructions for Use in the District Court (2009 Edition). Published by the Administrative Office of the District Court, District Court Department of the Trial Court, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, on www.mass.gov. © 1988-2009 Administrative Office of the District Court; reproduced under its title-page permission ("You may freely reproduce or copy this work if you identify its source and any changes made to the original work"). Source: https://www.mass.gov/doc/1200-recordation-of-proceedings/download. Changes made: the text is extracted from the published PDF (verified by three extraction engines); the running headers, page numbers and line layout are removed, and a closing NOTES section, where printed, is carried as the note.
Provenance
- Source
- mass.gov
- Retrieved
- 2026-09-25
- Edition
- 2026-09-25
- Content hash
e9f26912547937048fd55035d0b4b7899329464efc4fc50abe345bf473912e5b
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