5th Cir. Pattern Jury Instr. (Civil) 2.18

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Please continue your deliberations in an effort to

reach a verdict. This is an important case. The trial has

been expensive in terms of time, effort, money and emotional strain to all parties involved. If you should fail to

agree on a verdict, the case may have to be tried again.

There is no reason to believe that the case can be

retried, by either side, better or more exhaustively than

it has been tried before you.

Any future jury would be selected in the same manner and from the same source as you were chosen.

There is no reason to believe that those jurors would be

more conscientious, more impartial or more competent

to decide the case than you are.

It is your duty to consult with one another and to

deliberate with a view to reaching a verdict if you can

do so, consistent with your individual judgments. You

must not surrender your honest convictions as to the

weight or effect of the evidence solely because of the

opinions of the other jurors or just to reach a verdict.

Each of you must decide the case for yourself, but you

should do so only after consideration of the evidence

with your fellow jurors.

In the course of your deliberations, you should not

1This proposed instruction was largely derived from Kevin F .

O’Malley , Jay E. Grenig & Hon. William C. Lee, Federal Jury Practice and

Instructions §§ 106.09, 106.10 (5th ed. 2000).

In Brooks v. Bay State Abrasive Prods., Inc. , 516 F .2d 1003, 1004

(5th Cir. 1975), the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit

stated that an Allen charge may be used in civil cases if it makes clear to

the members of the jury that: (1) they have a duty to adhere to their honest opinions; and (2) they are not doing anything improper by maintaining

a good faith opinion although a mistrial may result.

This charge should be given only after the jury has directly stated

that it cannot reach a verdict, or when the amount of time spent in

deliberations is excessively long, as compared with the nature of the issues and length of the trial, so that it is obvious that the jury is having

difficulty reaching a verdict.

2.18GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS

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hesitate to reexamine your own views, and to change

your opinion if you are convinced that it is wrong. To

reach a unanimous verdict, you must examine the questions submitted to you openly and frankly, with proper

regard for the opinions of others and with a willingness

to reexamine your own views. If a substantial majority

of you are for a verdict for one party, each of you who

holds a different position ought to consider whether

your position is reasonable.

I suggest that you now carefully reexamine and

consider all the evidence in the case in light of my

instructions on the law. In your deliberations you are to

consider all of the instructions I have given to you as a

whole. You should not single out any part of any

instruction including this one.

You may now continue your deliberations.